Fernie BC: Big Bikes and Big Descents

Aug 5, 2014
by Reuben Krabbe  
Photo Epic Part 2: Kenny Smith and Adam Billinghurst joined the gang and so began a great day of riding, starting in the Bike Park and ending with a 4000ft high alpine descent on the legendary Dirt Diggler. Fernie BC continued to deliver the goods.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Shhh. They're sleeping.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Ah, Fern Gully. A whole valley of adventures tucked into the southeast corner of BC.

Fernie 2014
  Flick on the lights, put some caffeine in the veins, and hit the trails.

Fernie 2014
  A quiet town where the ski bum dream dominates the winter months, but in the summer, bikers take their shift sleeping in parking lots.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  At Fernie Alpine Resort, atop the Timber high speed chair, thousands of feet of high speed descent await. The gridded streets of town far below.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Paul Stevens wipes the sleep out of his eyes.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Stephen Matthews yawns, stretches, and begins to roll.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Choose your own adventure. Paul Stevens above the road less traveled.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Little bikes away, the big bikes have come out to play.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Still a little moist. Stephen Matthews.

stephen matthews fernie bc
  Stephen Matthews.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Paul zigs and the cedar trees zag to get out of his way.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

paul stevens fernie bc
  Paul flirts with the Fernie's gladded skiing.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Another rider one trail away. Man, this place is big.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Turn down for what?

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  I'm sorry, I don't think these boys are going to slow down.

Fernie 2014
  We brought out our secret weapon. The Ken. (That's Kenny Smith if you didn't figure it out. And, Pinkbike goes wild.)

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Adam Billinghurst racking up air miles.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Kenny brought his air miles platinum.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Kenny Lays down his cards.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  First lap done, more coffee, then more charging.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Kenny plays with flowers.

Alan Golds Fernie BC
  Alan Golds. - Alan Aurums (high fives for the geeks who pick up on that.)

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  When Kenny smith rides a bike, he doesn't go fast. The world moves fast for him.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Billinghurst threads the needle.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Kenny jumping on Bin-logged-in.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Ken.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  One final lap. All hands on deck, minimal shooting, and all kinds of awesome. Thanks Fernie Alpine Resort.

Fernie 2014
  I would have a witty caption, but my brain still hurts from Kenny's loud music on this shuttle lap.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Shuttling where? To 'Dirt Diggler' Fernie's premier shuttle trail, dropping from the radio tower on the left.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Diggler is etched into this steep alpine meadow, and descends all the way down towards the river.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  I'm sure there's trail. It's just somewhere below fifteen feet of snow.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Stephen Matthews wishing for a fat bike.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

Fernie 2014
  Kenny Smith, Alan Golds - Between Two Ferns.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  We aimed to ride through golden hour light, but we could see nothing but cloud at the cruxy drop in to Dirt Diggler. Paul Stevens.

kenny smith fernie bc
  Kenny Smith enjoying the trail. The view, not so much.

kenny smith paul stevens fernie bc
  Paul Stevens drafting off Kenny Smith.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

alan golds fernie bc
  Alan Golds in the promised land.

adam billinghurst fernie bc
  Thirty seconds later the clouds began to part. Adam Billinghurst.

kenny smith fernie bc
  Kenny Smith.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Sunshine, bikes, trails, beers, buddies. Oh yeah.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Paul Stevens.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Paul Stevens Stephen Matthews.

stephen matthews fernie bc
  Stephen Matthews.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Mike Budgen.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Kenny Smith.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  ADVERTISING.

Fernie 2014
  Paul Stevens, Stephen Matthews.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Paul Stevens, Stephen Matthews, Adam BIllinghurst.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  Lower on Dirt Diggler an exposed coal seam offers ludicrously soft carving.

stephen matthews adam billinghurst fernie bc
  Stephen Matthews, Adam BIllinghurst.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  At the bottom of the trail we ran into trail mastermind Derek Bird (not pictured), local riders and builders creating 3 kilometers of doubles using a mini-ex. Trouble is, they got delayed by rolling their truck off the skid road, and had to extract it using the mini excavator.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe
  While waiting to shuffle the shuttling trucks, the weather window ended and the skies opened up. Cold, tired, and food-less, the mood took a downhill slide.

Fernie BC. Big Bikes and Big Descents - Images by Reuben Krabbe

Fernie 2014
  "That's it. There's pizza and beer in town, we're gonna pedal for it." Pushing two bikes each, and carrying camera gear, we grunted back to town through the rain.

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  Tinder

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  Local Wildlife.

Fernie 2014
  The other local wildlife.

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Local Photographer Nick Nault was kind enough to be our tour guide. Here is a little behind the scenes edit of the Fernie photo shoot....with of course some riding for good measure!

Views: 13,129    Faves: 87    Comments: 24


Thank you to Tourism Fernie, Fernie Alpine Resort, Nick Nault and all the locals we met along the way.

If you missed Part 1 where we explored the XC sides of the town, then check that out here.

Posted In:
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Author Info:
ReubenKrabbe avatar

Member since Jan 16, 2009
12 articles

33 Comments
  • 17 0
 Whats better than a sick photo epic and edit? Not much. Best article Ive seen in a long time! thanks for given me something to dream about tonight!
  • 4 3
 Larger photo resolutions would be nice too, larger than 1600 x 1065
  • 4 0
 Hate to say it, but I just got back from Fernie bike park and I can't help but think that the trail crews and/or park directors seem to be dropping the ball in a big way. Although they seem to have done a lot of work on the elk chair blues and greens, the overall flow and layout of these new trails seems off and there has been little or no attention paid to the more advanced runs (with the exception of Kodiak which got a new, though somewhat questionable entry). They have such an amazing diversity of terrain to develop it seems a shame that more advanced runs haven't been evolving and intermediate, flowy trails like top gun are still left completely chewed up with the same craters and badly formed "jumps" I remember from last season. Now I don't want to hate..my goal in writing this is simply to share ideas. I absolutely LOVE Fernie. Until now it has been one of my favorite biking destinations. I just think something need to change if they don't want to put the sustainability of their bike park at risk. Maybe it's just all a result of more sh*t policies being put in place by RCR?
  • 1 0
 Take it up with Murray Edwards, I am sure he will care.
  • 1 0
 Whats RCR ?? I've never been to Fernie, but could one describe it as the natural raw trails of Sun Peaks with the loam of the sunshine coast ? I'm really not liking all these machine made trails that are machine packed 4 feet with and just berm after berm... That's what silverstar is for ( Love silverstar by the way ) I'm just looking for a new place to ride amazing flowing trail built the proper way.
  • 1 0
 The park hasn't been the same since Ryan Shultz was the head of the trailcrew. Don't get me wrong I appreciate all the hard work that goes into the trails and they are fun, but the overall direction seems to be to make trails for more beginner type riders (they basically watered down all the jumps/ stopped building them). Believe it or not there actually used to be a slopestyle contest on the bunny hill!
  • 1 0
 RCR is the company that owns a bunch of ski hills and who instituted a crap "no man-made jumps" policy at their resorts due to liability concerns...sadly, that decision seems to be bleeding over into their summer activities. Unfortunately, nobody wants a bike park that doesn't have man-made jumps. Even beginners enjoy a chance to try pop their wheels off some little tables! I agree that I wouldn't want to see it turn into just a machine-groomed bermfest, but every resort needs both types of trails (technical and flow) to cater to all riders. Although they're still holding up, Fernie's tech lines seemed to be suffering due to lack of maintenance and innovation and most of their flow lines are getting downright haggard. A few years ago if you had described it as "the natural raw trails of Sun Peaks with the loam of the sunshine coast" I would have agreed with you, but based on the past weekend I'm not too sure anymore.
  • 1 0
 I just got back from there a week ago and I must say that it was an ABSOLUTE blast. Everyone there is in it to have a good time and the trails are rediculously fun. Who cares if there not perfectly smooth and manicured, they are rad as hell. I loved seeing some trails I hit from Timber in this article. Great job guys!
  • 3 0
 Have great memories from Fernie way back in 2004, this article really makes me want to go back.
  • 5 0
 Between two ferns
  • 1 0
 My heart longs for Fernie. Such incredible memories both the Resort and Radio Tower. Feels like I got old suddenly lol, plus the kids wont want to see dad in a full body cast.
  • 3 0
 Soo.... Much.... Greeeeennn
  • 2 0
 Oh boy this makes me excited. I move there in 6 weeks time! yiiew
  • 1 0
 Might be a bit late to the park party, but you're right on time for fall riding and getting ready for the powder. Nice to see all the positive views on fernie. It's such a great little town.
  • 1 0
 Unfortunately a best mates wedding 4 days before I leave meant I had to stay here and miss the summer. So its pow time first Big Grin
  • 1 0
 Looks like a beautiful part of the planet. Fantastic pics that really make me want to ride. The dirt looks so good.
  • 1 0
 I need to make that trek back out to fernie again it looks like! I haven't been there since i was like 12
  • 2 0
 Great photos! But no shot of the ghost rider?
  • 1 0
 Having just returned from another sweet weekend there this article inspires me to return!
  • 1 1
 I rode the park and dirt diggler this weekend. Was very impressed dont know why it took me so many years to finally ride fernie
  • 1 0
 thats real epic ride. tons o amazing shots... some pretty average but lots of POD
  • 1 0
 Kenny Smith is a budday for sure! 6 speed Cummins action, with some high speed rippin' on the mountain! Way to be!
  • 1 0
 The silhouette with the flying dirt! POM!
  • 2 0
 Fernie >
  • 1 0
 Aurum-->latin for gold
  • 1 0
 Guess im going to Fernie...
  • 1 0
 attractive! very nice pics
  • 1 0
 I need to get there somehow.
  • 1 0
 Yes! more pictures less words. I love these articles.
  • 1 0
 VERBOTEN...great trail lift closed so I pedaled back up to do it again.
  • 3 2
 I like pigeons
  • 1 0
 great photos!
  • 1 0
 that colours...







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