RE: Snow being OP vs spread -- it can be, but
Ice, which is all over in snow biomes, can be converted by any of the three, which can lead to a budding crimson/corruption area smack dab in the midst of your "save" ice/snow biome.
As to
wings -- the easiest is probably getting your witch doctor to the jungle now that you're in hard mode, and buying some Leaf wings. Outside of that, check in the sky outside of the center third of the map for wyverns, but be warned they like to run through unlucky players.
And weapons/armor? Pwnhammer to break some of the crimson/corrupt altars to bless your world with the three tiers of ore, and then go for them in order... or fish a hundred or two
crates and pop them open in your hardmode world. Wood ones gives you a shot at ore, and all three tiers of general crate give a shot at bars, which can help jump to tier 2 or 3 weapons/armor/craft stations (anvil, forge).