CALGARY -- Calgarians woke up to a blanket of icy precipitation on Wednesday and while most drivers dread the white stuff, others enjoy a fresh dump of snow.

Darlene Persson and Jordena Cahoon were bundled up and walking on the cleared pathway system in Fish Creek Provincial Park. They say the sun took the bite out of the cold air and they love the look of the fresh snow.

“It sparkles, it’s all diamonds,” said Persson. “There’s diamonds everywhere we walk, it’s a diamond day.”

Sean Orcutt spent part of the day trying out his new GoPro, shooting some timelapse video in the park.

“This weather is, of course it’s the happy times, everybody’s out you know, everybody’s enjoying it,” said Orcutt. “It’s nice and bright and beautiful, that’s what I like about it.”

Nic Blanchet is the executive director of the Friends of Fish Creek Povincial Park Society and after it snows, he typically sees more children enjoying themselves.

“Well obviously toboggans come out, plenty of toboggans,” said Blanchet. “We have hills on both sides so we’re well populated with toboggans. You see all the little dogs have their booties on for a change, not so many bikes obviously although the fat bikes seem to go pretty good.”

Blanchet says the park is a great spot to unwind no matter what the weather.

“Times are difficult,” he said. “We’ve all got other things that we have to deal with now as well as every day pressures and yet we’re so fortunate to have this valuable asset here to come down and put a smile on your face.”

At Winsport, the ski hill was covered with a 12 centimetres of of fresh snow, said Mike Tanner, executive director of facilities. Staff were busy early in the morning grooming runs.

“Today is a great day, this snow is fantastic,” said Tanner. “It’s been a rollercoaster of weather, probably one of the warmest January’s so we were behind a little bit but then we got cold weather and caught up and now natural snow is just a great bonus.”

Truth Smith, 16, was at Winsport to take part in the Canada snowboard training camp and couldn't wait to hit the slopes.

“Yah, I’m pretty stoked,” said Smith. “It’s actually getting pretty sunny too so it’s like a pow-park-day, which is a win-win.”

Tanner says the week-long forecast of more cold and snow definitely puts a smile on his face.