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Eaglecrest and Discovery Southeast have teamed up to offer a great week of snow sports fun during Spring Break. In addition to Eaglecrest's popular skiing and snowboarding holiday camps for all ages and abilities, Discovery Southeast will be offering numerous opportunities to discover the area on snow shoes.

"We'll kick off the week with a snowshoeing activity for families in the Books2Boards program on Saturday, March 20 and end the week with a family Discovery Day snowshoe hike on Friday, March 26," said Beth Weigel, Executive Director for Discovery Southeast and a part-time snowsports instructor for Eaglecrest.

In addition, Discovery Southeast will offer "Try Snowshoeing" mini hikes and games throughout the week that will familiarize guests with planned new Porcupine Chairlift area. This past year Discovery Southeast purchased 20 pairs of youth snowshoes and 7 pairs of adult snowshoes through a grant from the Douglas Dornan Foundation and a purchasing program through the Winter Wildlands Association's Snow School. Foggy Mountain Shop will also be helping out with snowshoes if needed.

Books2Boards is a new program of the Eaglecrest Foundation that purchases the gear necessary to engage in winter sports for 50 under-served youth in sixth and seventh grades. Discovery Southeast will also be helping these youth go from books to boards to boots through another donation of rubber boots from Gastineau Guiding Company.

"Juneau has formed a great coalition to get kids outdoors and when Gastineau Guiding made this offer to donate all the good condition rubber boots they used to use in their tours, I knew exactly how to get the gear to the families and young people who needed them," Weigel said.

Any boots left over will go to the Juneau Children Outdoors Community Coalition's Clothing Exchange event scheduled for March 27.

Discovery Southeast will also offer a second backcountry skills session as part of Discovery Day on Friday, March 26 in partnership with Eaglecrest Ski Patrol and Juneau Mountain Rescue. Youth who wish to participate in this afternoon session should be able to descend the west side of the mountain on skis or snowboard and will work with patrol and rescue professionals to learn about backcountry travel and safety. Participants will also practice avalanche transceiver skills in the Easy Searcher Beacon Park. Eaglecrest's zany Downhill Dummy competition will also take place on Friday, March 26.

Other upcoming events and programs for Discovery Southeast include the 21st Annual Dinner and Auction on Saturday, April 3 at Centennial Hall from 5-8:30 p.m., World Ocean Day Celebration in early June and Outdoor Explorers Summer Day Camp which begins June 14 and runs through August 13.

To register for Discovery Day or other Discovery Southeast programs call 463-1500. For more information on the above activities visit http://www.skijuneau.com or http://www.discoverysoutheast.org.