There’s a particular kind of freedom that arrives when the kids are grown and the calendar finally opens up. For Geoff and Leslie Adams, that freedom took the shape of a van. Fjord is their semi-retirement basecamp — a four-season Yama Vans build designed around ski days, slow mornings, and a deep attachment to one place they keep coming back to: Fernie, British Columbia.
Built on Yama’s flagship Logan01N platform — a 170″ all-wheel-drive Mercedes-Benz Sprinter — Fjord isn’t a van for chasing as many destinations as possible. It’s a van for staying. Longer stays in the mountains, deeper into winter, with the comfort and self-sufficiency to make a snowy trailhead parking lot feel like a cabin. After years of family life, the Adams finally have a home on wheels that runs on their schedule, not anyone else’s.
Images courtesy of Yama Vans
A Van Built for Staying, Not Just Passing Through
Most adventure vans are optimized for movement — quick overnights, big mileage, constant relocation. Fjord takes the opposite approach. It’s built for the semi-retired rhythm the Adams were after: park near the hill, ski when conditions are good, and linger over coffee when they aren’t. That philosophy shows up in every system on board, all chosen to support longer stays in cold, remote places rather than a constant churn of new campsites.
Images courtesy of Yama Vans
An Indoor/Outdoor Bench Seat with a Built-In Workspace
One of Fjord’s signature touches is a versatile bench seat with integrated storage that doubles as a workspace. It’s a small idea with outsized impact: it gives the Adams a comfortable place to eat, work, or simply sit with a view, and because it’s designed to function indoors or out, it blurs the line between the cabin and the campsite. On a slow morning that’s a coffee nook; on a powder day it’s a bench for pulling on ski boots. This is the kind of multipurpose, daily-use furniture that makes a van livable for weeks rather than nights.
Images courtesy of Yama Vans
A Galley Made for Long Winter Stays
Fjord’s off-grid kitchen leans into counter space, which is exactly what you want when meals are a centerpiece of slow mountain days rather than a quick refuel. A double-burner cooktop with induction capability, premium appliances, and a 0.4-micron filtered drinking water system let the Adams cook real food for days on end without resupplying. When a storm rolls in and you’re snowed in by choice, a kitchen this capable turns a confined space into a genuinely comfortable place to wait out the weather.
Images courtesy of Yama Vans
A Compact Wetroom That Folds Away
Daily independence in winter means a real bathroom, and Fjord delivers one without giving up precious floor space. The half-height CUBE Wetroom uses a collapsible shower that pops up on demand and disappears the rest of the time, paired with a cassette toilet and a drying rack. For a couple settling in for extended stays where facilities are nonexistent, that self-contained hygiene setup is the difference between roughing it and actually living well.
Images courtesy of Yama Vans
Heat and Power That Hold Up to Deep Winter
Skiing out of a van in the Canadian Rockies is only pleasant if the van can fight back against the cold — and this is where the Logan01N platform shines. Fjord runs a 21,000 BTU hydronic heating system that delivers cabin air heat, on-demand hot water, and radiant in-floor warmth, so the floor is warm under bare feet even when it’s below freezing outside. Backing it up is an 11.8 kWh lithium bank with a 3 kVA inverter charger, good for two-plus weeks off-grid, recharged by 200 watts of solar and a 280-amp secondary alternator. Combined with four-season insulation, it’s a van engineered to make winter the season you look forward to, not the one you avoid.
Images courtesy of Yama Vans
Gear Storage and an Exterior Wash Station
Ski gear is wet, heavy, and abundant, and Fjord plans for it. The 85-cubic-foot rear gear garage swallows boots, skis, and bikes for warmer months, with a T-track system and 12V/120V power for charging and drying. An exterior wash-down station lets the Adams rinse off snow, mud, and grit before anything comes into the living space — a thoughtful boundary between the messy outdoors and the cozy interior that keeps a full-time van from feeling like a gear closet.
Images courtesy of Yama Vans
Video Tour: Yama Vans Delivery Day: The Adams Meet Fjord
Design Details
- Builder: Yama Vans (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
- Base model: Logan01N — Yama’s flagship platform
- Chassis: Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 170″ 3500XD twin-turbo diesel, AWD, 9G-TRONIC automatic
- Footprint: ~23 feet / 7 m; ~17 L/100 km fuel economy
- Seating / sleeping: Seats 4; sleeps 2 on the Signature Sliding Bed System (fits up to 6’1″), plus a convertible front seat
- Signature feature: Indoor/outdoor bench seat with storage and integrated workspace
- Kitchen: Double-burner induction-capable cooktop, premium appliances, filtered drinking water, extensive counter space
- Bathroom: Half-height CUBE Wetroom with collapsible shower, cassette toilet, drying rack
- Electrical: 11.8 kWh lithium, 3 kVA inverter charger, 200W solar, 280A second alternator, 30A shore — 2+ weeks off-grid
- Water: 106 L (28 gal) fresh, 60 L (16 gal) grey, 0.4-micron purification
- Heating: 21,000 BTU hydronic — cabin air, on-demand hot water, radiant in-floor
- Storage: 85 ft³ gear garage with T-track (up to 4 bikes), 12V/120V power, exterior wash station
- Extras: Four-season insulation, six dimmable LED zones, touchscreen + app monitoring, FOX shocks, BFG KO3 tires on 17″ alloys, Baja Designs 270° perimeter lighting
- Pricing: Logan01N builds start at $243,000 CAD (plus tax, excludes Sprinter chassis)
What Makes This Build Special
- Designed for staying put. Where most vans optimize for movement, Fjord optimizes for longer, slower stays in one beloved place.
- True winter capability. Radiant in-floor heat, a 21k BTU hydronic system, and four-season insulation make below-freezing ski mornings genuinely comfortable.
- The bench seat is the star. An indoor/outdoor seat with storage and a workspace shows how one clever, multipurpose piece of furniture can define how a van lives.
- A second-act home. Built for empty-nesters stepping into semi-retirement, Fjord is proof that the best van builds reflect a specific chapter of life.
- Gear-first, mess-managed. An 85 ft³ garage plus an exterior wash station keep the snow and grit outside where they belong.
Learn More
Fjord is a custom build on the Logan01N platform from Yama Vans, a made-to-order adventure van builder based in Calgary, Canada. You can watch Fjord’s delivery-day reveal to the Adams family on the Yama Vans YouTube channel, and explore the full gallery of their signature models on the build gallery.
Highlights
- AWD Mercedes Sprinter 170″ built for deep-winter ski basecamping
- Radiant in-floor hydronic heat and four-season insulation
- Indoor/outdoor bench seat with storage and a built-in workspace
- 11.8 kWh lithium system runs 2+ weeks off-grid
- Pop-up CUBE Wetroom shower and cassette toilet
- 85 ft³ gear garage and exterior wash station for ski and bike gear
- Built for Geoff and Leslie Adams’ semi-retired life in Fernie, BC
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Alex
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