Ice Climbing at Big White Ski Resort– Bits of ice fly in every direction as you plunge the picks of two ice axes – one in each hand – into the towering 18 metre (60 foot) wall of ice at Big White, near Kelowna, British Co

Shout ‘Gung Hay Fat Choy’ and join the party!

Canadians of Chinese ancestry – and there are 1.3 million of us at last count – celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in style. And everyone’s welcome.

Québec in winter can be a fairy tale kind of place, especially when you’re cozy under a blanket on a horse-drawn-sleigh-bells-tinkling ride through the forest. Or catching snowflakes on your cheeks as you skate across a frozen lake lit up at night, finishing with a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

Here are five more activities to put the wonder back in winter. Click here for the first five:

1. Poles fit for a prince

From its reputation as home to Canada’s best jazz festival to its sophisticated savoir-faire, Montréal has always had a sort of “Birth of the Cool” insouciance.

Less than 30 minutes from downtown Québec City, Parc national de la Jacques-Cartier is a dramatic landscape of mountains and steep-sided glacial valleys. The most spectacular is 550 metres (1,800 feet) deep with the Jacques-Cartier River winding along its base through forests of birch and sugar maples.

 Every ski resort tries to offer something novel, but Big White, near Kelowna, British Columbia, gets bragging rights for the coolest, strangest and altogether gnarliest new sport this ski season: snowbiking.

 Trust an adventurous Quebecker to come up with yet another way to play with adrenalin in mid-winter. Just 30 minutes from Québec City, at the foot of Mont-Sainte-Anne, caving enthusiast Marc Tremblay created the brand new sport of ice-canyoning – abseiling down the vertical face of a frozen waterfall.

Maëlle Ricker’s smile was beamed around the world after winning the gold medal in the snowboard cross event at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Would the next Pierre Lueders please step up.