Snowshoeing is one of my favorite winter sports, because it involves blessedly few resources. There is no electricity-powered lift carrying you up the hill; there are no snow machines belting artificial snow; there are few other people around you. Besides the resources necessary to transport you to the trail, and to make the gear, this is purely a self-powered experience.

The Medicine Trail, operated by Canadian Snowmobile, is quite the trail. Two large totems greet snowshoers as they head past a frozen lake and penetrate deep into the forest. At some points the trail is but a few steps wide, meandering through towering pine and fir trees.

The guides at Canadian Snowmobile are well educated and passionate about sharing their knowledge. Stops throughout the snowshoe trek informed us about the different types of fir trees, using sap as fuel, how many pounds of berries bears eat daily during the summer, and the incredible smells that emanate from certain broken pine needles.

Snowshoe out into the Callaghan Valley, and experience untouched Whistler, as it must have been before modern human intervention.