In most places, a ski event involves lycra, timing chips, and someone yelling “GO!”

In Wells, it involves cross-country skiing through a snowy meadow… dressed as a pirate… stopping for sushi… and somehow ending up in conversation with a nun.

Welcome to the Wells International Gourmet Ski — the annual winter fundraiser where the trails are beautiful, the food is absurdly good, and the costumes are outrageous.

This is not a race. This is a moving feast.

Ski the Cornish Mountain trail network in any order, any direction, at any pace. Follow the tracks, follow the laughter, and eventually follow the smell of something delicious.

Because out here, your next break might serve miso soup and sushi with live music. Or you might glide up to a fire where three Russian sisters are handing out cabbage rolls. One kilometre later? A Mexican cookout. Around the next bend? French cuisine. Somehow, between the snowy hills of the Cariboo, you’re tasting flavours from Namibia to Mumbai — all made in humble Wells kitchens by volunteers who take feeding skiers very seriously.

And here, costumes are part of the culture. This is the rare event where Vikings, unicorns, nudists, and nuns all share the same trails, and everyone’s just here for the food.

The whole thing is proudly low-key and “green,” with wooden plates and cutlery, and a gentle reminder to bring your own cup so you can stay hydrated between gourmet stops.

The day wraps up with hot drinks, desserts, and the warm glow of having just eaten your way through the woods on skis.

Registration opens in early January and sells out fast — because once you’ve you have met a unicorn in the woods sipping miso, you know you must come back.

Ski. Eat. Costume. Repeat.

Cariboo. It’s true.