For our final nourishment of the day, we visit Fuze Finer Dining. Finer than what? The comparison is incomplete, but the tastes, which yoke local sources to international flavours, are compelling. Executive Chef Gary Dayanandan offers a list of signature dishes and a distinctive flair with spices; a vegetarian menu is also available. While the dining room mixes warehouse traditional and avant-garde decor, each table floats almost island-like, its own hurricane rock lamp a little beacon of warmth. The food provides winter comfort, from a delicious elk ravioli to a classic roast duck a l’orange, rich and crispy and sweet. Seafood is prepared in unusual ways. Particularly good is the appetizer of panseared calamari “gremolata,” made with capers, lemon zest and parsley on a pesto risotto. Fuze is adamant about ingredients and technique; it even boasts an epicurean boutique that sells kitchen accessories, coffee and spices.

We start with lunch at the widewindowed Crazyweed Kitchen on Railway Avenue. Crazyweed claims to be a “roadside attraction,” but this restaurant is no roadhouse. It’s a glorious, light-soaked place that invites visitors to unwind for lunch or dinner. The film-noir decor and menus contrast with the wood interior, the bright upholstery and the grey and green mountain scenery. Plants offer privacy between tables. The pork-belly watermelon salad is indescribable and the Vietnamese pork meatballs more than moreish. The menu finesses drizzle and truffle, shiitake and basil with yuzu ponzu dip and ocean-friendly seafood choices. I try an artichoke heart crowned with a hat of potato curls. Pizzas — one named after Oscar Wilde — emerge from a wood-burning pizza oven. No matter what the season, Crazyweed begs visitors to linger and watch the light play over the slopes above.

But some activity is essential before dinner. The outdoor lure on days when the sky is sharp and the snow as luscious as icing is the Canmore Nordic Centre, which boasts cross-country and biathlon trails to sparkle eyes and set fire to cheeks. The cross-country course at Canmore offers more than 65 kilometres of groomed trail systems for all skill levels.

At the end of the day, we head for the Trough Dining Co., a small place that looks unpretentious but has become a refuge for those in quest of very good food. Michael Western and Rosie Gair have together created a no-longer-so-secret restaurant where the busy world vanishes and cellphones must be put on vibrate. Located off a back street in Canmore, it has only eight tables, which are often booked weeks in advance.

We get a table by the window so that we can catch glimpses of the Three Sisters Mountain Range against the hazy winter air. And the food is worth the planning: it recites Indian flavours but occupies a category all its own. From the house-made grilled bread infused with rosemary olive oil to “the trough,” a selection of Valbella meats and spiced eggplant with olives and chèvre, and the pan-seared scallops sharpened with cilantro and black sesame coating, the tastes are superb. Local suppliers mean that the meat dishes have an honest pedigree; the food reflects a tender mergence of exotic and Alberta influences. The sauces are so exquisitely flavoured that you want to tip the dishes up and lick them clean. Everything in The Trough, from the shape and heft of the forks to the ochre walls and polished wooden floors, promises that winter is a season of celebration and peace.

There’s a warming to winter’s short temper when you’ve spent a day close to the mountains, even if you haven’t climbed beyond the valley floor. Those towering and, yes, inspiring peaks sharpen every appetite.

Aritha van Herk is based in Calgary.