Scheduled for March 9-11, the organization's annual Level 1 avalanche training takes place at Arizona Snowbowl and in adjacent Kachina Peaks Wilderness. With two-thirds of the course in the field, participants gain hands on experience with transceivers, digging snow pits, and safe travel techniques. For the curious and serious, the avalanche center's website features two maps created by Dr. Lee Dexter, Professor of Geography at Northern Arizona University - one, a topo of the San Francisco Peaks; the other, a map with all the named avalanche paths. For skiers planning to enter the backcountry from Arizona Snowbowl, free permits are required. You can pick them up in the Agassiz Lodge on Saturday and Sunday mornings between 9 and 11 a.m.