Vermilion, AB - Access is everything, whether you are going skiing or sledding, and the effort to get there draws the line between a day adventure or an odyssey.

Having a tuning fork vibrating on your chest as you lie awash in yellow light, as Sandra Kathnelson is currently experiencing, may not intuitively sound like a way to reconnect to nature. But it’s all about good vibrations.

It’s not every day someone heads to the middle of B.C. to experience Fort St. James and a ski hill with soul, aka, @MurrayRidge. But WinterFest is happening through February and that made us want to check it out, so SnowSeekers dispatched Smithers-based photographer Marty Clements to learn what this festival is all about.

Alvin Lee hadn’t laid eyes on snow until three years ago, at the age of 33 while on a trip to Japan. He thought the strange looking white stuff was piles of plastic, he recalls, chuckling at the thought.

Climbing behind the “wheel” of a Sherp is a surreal experience, beginning with the lack of wheel itself. This large, near-indestructible, amphibious tank of a vehicle has a manual transmission and two large levers to pivot and turn left and right. Its wheels are as tall as the average adult, and the squat body of the thing hunches over them, keeping a low profile (if that is possible for such a wild contraption).

A historic rock cairn, rimed and grey, looks out over Lake Athabasca. With her gloved hand, Hanna Bishop brushes the hoar shards from the bronze plaque, revealing the historic majesty of the Canadian north. Where we are standing is the spot on which stood the North West Company’s most important trading post, Fort Chipewyan, founded in 1788.

Archer is ready to go skiing. He’s so excited his body is shaking. As he moves from one to the other of our group, he nudges us, looking at us imploringly, as if to say, “Are you ready now? Are you ready now?”

If you don’t live on Vancouver Island, you might not know VanIsle has a ski hill. But here’s another secret - the island has two!

Hudson Bay is noted as an “ultra prominent peak,” best viewed from the small alpine town in its shadows - Smithers. The city residents are embraced by 360 degrees mountain views, and some of the best backcountry you could ask for.

Quesnel is a town of about 10,000 people and 13,000 more in the surrounding area - a lot larger than we expected, and there’s a reason for that. 

Surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains, the locals in Smithers have nothing but smiles, stoke and love for the community. We spoke with four residents, business owners and managers who have carved out lives for themselves from the valley floor to the mountain tops. 

When I spent my first season on the west coast five years ago, the weather was terrible. We were skunked out by rain every day, and there was no snow. I kept seeing videos of people up at Powder King, without a care in the world, enjoying the mounds of fresh snow, the good times, and perfect pow turns. 

There are many reasons someone might want to switch from snowboarding to skiing. Take Amber Grant for instance. She was getting fed up with the hassle of cat tracks and the hard falls that come with snowboarding. So ger husband, Ben, convinced her to try a lesson in the Next Step program for skiing at Marmot Basin.