Just a heads up for peeps wanting to goto fernie. They have 2 lifts, one of which is very slow, about 20 min to the top. During the week the hours are limited and only the slow chair is in operation.
Try go on the weekend, then the faster lift is open.
the slow chair is a good amount of time for a beer. to think that the "only reason i'll never go there" is the amount of time its open is a unique reason for not going. one less person on the hill i suppose. we enjoy the hill immensely even though we have the option of going to other resorts. its a very fun place to ride bikes, and the rest of the town is bike crazy. to stay in fernie and only ride the hill is to miss a lot of other good riding. bring more then one bike.
I rememebr fernie prior to RcR buying it... It WAS awesome then, before they bridged all the gaps on top gun... then I went back the next year ( after RcR bought it ) it wasnt the same.... This video fails to convey how shoddy some of the trails actually are, bombed out and rutted ( as of 2 years ago last I was there ) and yes the hours are rediculous, there are better hills IMO, by all means check it out for yourself.... See you on the microwave towers after thems the shit .
Massive props to Luke Stevens. Incase you guys didnt no, as a junior rider he was a podium contender on the world cup almost every race that he attended. So cool to see him riding among some the best in the sport. Keep doing what your doing sir, your killing it!
@dmadness, RCR has actually owned fernie for over ten years... they just recently put in a "No jumps rule" for winter and summer. Who cares about jumps anyway? Fernie's known for our loamy single track...
no jumps? next time i ride in fernie and i find myself airborne- on every trail that i ride there- i'll remind myself that there aren't any jumps at this resort.
last i rode there the only places a guy could get air was off of Convolutions in the terrain and a few spots where a berm could be gapped. I dont mean to Piss on your parade but These were MY experiences, I do hope Im wrong and they've done some work there but friends who rode their last year said it was the same and bombed out/ not maintained very well. Again, only my experiences.
my memories of fernie are similar to yours dmadness. Bombed out, rickety stunts, and all the lips were rolled like at a bmx track. They do have a few good trails but it's like some of the other hills. i would make constant day trips to k-horse and in 2 years I did one weekend trip to fernie and left annoyed.
First i totally agree.Big big Hopkins fan. But am i the only one who thinks that the filming and editing is on a whole new level. Not the classic Larock slow mo, there was much more dynamic. Especially in combination with the riding this "Crew" created a lot of outstanding shots. Maybe it is only my opinion that the king of slow motion just became a little better? I appreciate it Props to Riders and Filmers.
Awesome! A little less than two days left until the first day of spring, and in anticipation of the new season, I would like to wish all to make your plans for the year come true, for some it is a trip to the mountains, championships, and for some fun trip with friends on the beach black sea in Crimea or Italy, or just anywhere, fun days trail and magnificent scenery. Can someone dare to long journeys to Russia and Europe on a bicycle. I think this is not important. The main thing is that we are all driven by a single idea: the pleasure of riding a bike. So I would like all-everything once again wish come true plans, less trauma, more victories and the sea happy dating! The countdown has begun!Have a good summer Pinkbike!
"the trails are always in good condition..." ??? i don't think so. top gun is usually filled with pot holes on the lower section :-( they could definitely use more maintenance on this hill.
Sadly, I have to agree. After having gone to Fernie a fair number of times last summer it was disappointing how much the trails deteriorated over the course of the season. It seemed like there was lots of efforts to build newer, more difficult trails, but not enough time focused on maintaining what was already there. Top gun (just as an example) was getting REALLY chewed up and lots of gap jumps were becoming impossible due clear due to the lips breaking down over time. I think in order for the sport to grow Fernie needs to make sure they're also appealing to the novice riders by ensuring these fast, flowy trails on the lower mountain get the maintanence they require. Great video though! Definitely looking forward to the summer!
I rode Fernie quite a bit last year and i was disappointed in how the trails where maintained. top gun was such a mess by the end of the season it was ridiculous. Fernie is a great place to ride but they need to step their game up because they still don't compare to hills like silver star and whistler. If they would built some real jumps it would be 1000X better.
Fernie has massive potential, but falls short in a number of ways. If it had a better trail crew it could be an amazing destination that could compete with Whistler, partly because they are so close to a big city and partly because they have awesome terrain as well as great trails outside the park. But unfortunately they just don't put in the maintenance or fix things that need addressing. On one visit, there was blowdown in about 5 places that had been there for weeks, which is just mind boggling for a bike park. Being so close to Calgary you would think it would be worth the investment to at the very least maintain what they have, and fix some of the corners and jumps that don't work. Despite its shortcomings, I still prefer the riding there to any BC bike park other than Whistler. There are so many awesome short sections of bliss that are as good or better than any bike park I've ridden, but overall there's not enough effort put into making it great to get me to take a vacation there every season.
to travel to fernie primarily to ride top gun is a perfectly good reason to be disappointed about the hill. but i would be more disappointed about choosing to ride on an average at best trail when there are so many great runs you could otherwise do. fernie is a pretty rugged, but not a life threateningly gnarly resort. if you are looking for jump lines like whistler offers, or bermed-the-fuck out super flowy trails like at silver star, fernie is not your hill. fernie is awesome and super fun to ride if you are looking for rugged, flowy, natural-ish trails at a good level of pace that a variety of riders levels can take advantage of. and the rest of the town is awesome.
i agree though that a trail crew would really help make the place better, but i would hate to think that they would try to make it a place like whistler. they never could. embracing the rugged is ok. fernie is great but can not compete with silverstar or whistler in the trails that they offer.
one great resort in a province full of great places to ride bikes.
I wouldn't want it to be like Silverstar anyway; it's way too buff for my liking. The positives you use to describe Fernie are the same things I like about it. It's rough and rugged. Pretty much any section that's in the trees is awesome, but pretty much everything that's not could use some work or get rerouted through the trees instead. Honestly, I get plenty of jumps in Whistler and I don't really care that Fernie doesn't have any. If they just cut more natural singletrack in the trees so you can avoid some of the exposed areas and fixed up some of the shitty 'way too sharp' corners, it would be significantly better. (I've really only ridden Timber Chair, so this is where I base my comments on). When I say 'compete with Whistler' I don't mean to make it just like Whistler; one is enough. I just don't understand why they don't invest some time and effort into the place when it has such amazing terrain and is only 2 1/2 hours from a big city. It has 'potential to approach the quality' of Whistler, not become a carbon copy. In my opinion it could and should be much better, bigger and busier than Silverstar because it has better technical terrain and a much larger population in proximity to it. They just have not invested in themselves like Silverstar has and they are missing out because of it.
I love the bermed-the-f*ck-out trails at Silverstar! Quite a few of the trails off the Elk [slow] chair are what we used to ride on XC bikes BITD, but they've been left to erode and gnarify [Mr. Berms, Hornet - I'm talking to you]. A few of the green and blue trails are still XC-friendly, especially those on looker's right of the Elk Chair. If you are pedaling, it's worth it to extend your riding into Mt. Fernie Provincial Park. A loop of Snakebite to Verboten to Project 9 to Sherwoody to Honeybee is awesome. Fernie is a great place to ride, bring a bike for the lifts but also bring something that you can climb with. You will literally quadruple the amount of trail at your disposal.
Fernie is basically my home on the weekends haha and I agree they do have great rugged trails but after riding there a lot it would just be nice to have some jumps and nice berms on a few trails. It will never be silver star or whistler thats true but it could be sooooo much better than it is now.
I think a lot of people are missing the point I was trying to make about Fernie. The trails here are more like traditional singletrack, rather than perfectly groomed smooth quad track trails. The fact that they got rid of the jumps a few years ago doesn't really matter because there are plenty of jumps in town (we have made videos on most of them over the years). If you're looking for crab apple style trails then maybe stick to whistler/silverstar. To each his own I guess.
i think your point was made very effectively, and the video presented an image very consistent to the way i enjoy riding my bike while in fernie. except in the video the riding is how i imagine i am riding. keyword being imagine.
fernie is a great place to ride a mountain bike.
lucky people get to ride there.
thanks for uploading the video.
I looooove Fernie! Their trails have a good mix of technical dh singletrack and fast/flowy! Not only that, they have a dual slalom that you can race on! Mike Hopkins and his crew were KILLING it in this vid!!!!
Also RCR purchased a mini hoe for the resort at the end of last summer. Which only means that the trails this year will be even better!!
Best line from Timber Chair: TNT Upper to Rumpelstumpskin to TNT Lower to Bin Lodgin back to Rumpelstumpskin
Best line from Elk Chair: Top Gun
If anybody is interested my company runs tours from Edmonton and Calgary to Fernie in the summer/winter! We take care of your transportation, accommodations, lift tickets (and rentals if you require them) all in one package making it super affordable to go shred with your friends! Throw me a message if your interested!
Rode fernie resort last year after a couple year hiatus. Trail maintenance was nonexistent and was disappointed how the resort had fallen off. I'm from Calgary and fernie resort is now far down my list for places to ride. I'd much rather ride around the town of fernie or kicking Horse resort where you get both rugged trails and can still catch some air. I would have never said that five years ago. Lets call a spade a spade, fernie resort is not the park it used to be. There is a reason there are only 10 people riding that hill on a weekend in July.
Everytime i'm on a trail i think that the pros cant be much faster because i cant imagine that. Time after time, a video like this shows how fast guys like hopkins really go and what it means to be a "pro-rider". Truely amazing.
Its a sick hill but the guys up top are right... the only down side is the deer chair.. takes forever! but still a sick hill! cant wait for the season to start!!
sick vid.btw did anyone else notice just how big and how tweenie the marzocchis make the boxxers look right at the start with the 3 bike line up??? those things are beasts..
As soon as I see Hopkins is in it, it's an immediate fav! Dudes got steeze! The other two riders were looking pretty pinned aswell, and the tracks looked rad.. Great edit
Great riding, ok. But what's so cool about riding without gloves? Looks like more and more prominent riders show this habit. Come on, you actually *can* feel the levers with protected fingers and palm.
Its funny you say that, I bashed on the riders who rode without gloves for the longest time, then I tried it and it was like a EUREKA moment for me!! IMO gloves are good if you crash alot, they protect your hands from getting ripped up, but the control that you have without them is unparalleled. I feel so much more of what the front of my bike is doing and more control, unless it is a freaking hot day and you're hands are sweaty, but I ride gloveless as much as possible.
So Sam Hill doesn't wear body armour, so everyone starts questioning if they should, someone doesn't wear gloves so we all start questioning if we should, its not a question of what looks cool, its what your comfortable wearing depending on the conditions and environment and your confident levels, personally I ride with as much protection as I can when bombing down a hill at 60+km/h, but thats just me and who is to question me for doing so, when you hit the deck and spend 2 months off the track because of an injury due to not having the right gear we'll ask you why you went out without the right armour, don't tell us its because so and so didn't when he won the WC.
now see, when something like this is out there, its on abvious vod, but now you took its shock and awe factor out by making it just a story with no actricle... moral of the story.. MAKE these kinds of vids that dont come out ofter VOD's! they deserve more than just this!
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A little less than two days left until the first day of spring, and in anticipation of the new season, I would like to wish all to make your plans for the year come true, for some it is a trip to the mountains, championships, and for some fun trip with friends on the beach black sea in Crimea or Italy, or just anywhere, fun days trail and magnificent scenery. Can someone dare to long journeys to Russia and Europe on a bicycle. I think this is not important. The main thing is that we are all driven by a single idea: the pleasure of riding a bike. So I would like all-everything once again wish come true plans, less trauma, more victories and the sea happy dating! The countdown has begun!Have a good summer Pinkbike!
And 1st june is the firs day of summer.
If u live in GB it doesn't mean thats its my childhood)
???
i don't think so. top gun is usually filled with pot holes on the lower section :-(
they could definitely use more maintenance on this hill.
When I say 'compete with Whistler' I don't mean to make it just like Whistler; one is enough. I just don't understand why they don't invest some time and effort into the place when it has such amazing terrain and is only 2 1/2 hours from a big city. It has 'potential to approach the quality' of Whistler, not become a carbon copy. In my opinion it could and should be much better, bigger and busier than Silverstar because it has better technical terrain and a much larger population in proximity to it. They just have not invested in themselves like Silverstar has and they are missing out because of it.
Also RCR purchased a mini hoe for the resort at the end of last summer. Which only means that the trails this year will be even better!!
Best line from Timber Chair:
TNT Upper to Rumpelstumpskin to TNT Lower to Bin Lodgin back to Rumpelstumpskin
Best line from Elk Chair:
Top Gun
If anybody is interested my company runs tours from Edmonton and Calgary to Fernie in the summer/winter! We take care of your transportation, accommodations, lift tickets (and rentals if you require them) all in one package making it super affordable to go shred with your friends! Throw me a message if your interested!