BC Bike Park Road Trip: Checking Out Kicking Horse & Fernie













In this final chapter of our road trip, we leave the rolling hills of Okanagan/Shuswap Highlands and head East over Rogers Pass, through Glacier National Park and into the Purcell Mountains to our fifth of six bike parks. Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, located just outside of Golden, BC, has strong ties to the community. Formally Whitetooth Ski Area, which was owned by the municipality, Kicking Horse was sold, and underwent serious expansion in the late 90s before re-opening under its current name. Mountain biking has been present at the resort since 2001, but began unconventionally with guided only access to the volunteer-built trails. Most of these trails were built quickly by advanced riders, which established a gnarly reputation for the mountain.




Much of the trail crew's efforts over the last decade have been focused on updating or decommissioning these gnarly, old, unsustainable trails to modernize the bike park. They have worked hard to maintain a natural trail feel within the park by adding some hand-built new school tech trails and one of the flowiest alpine trails we have ever ridden called "Dragon Chaser". The mountain's alpine tenure has recently expanded, providing Kicking Horse the opportunity to build more gondola accessible alpine trails, which we would LOVE to see.

Kicking Horse boasts 3,700 ft of ridable vertical, all accessible from one quick ride up the Eagle Eye gondola. They have an "Enduro Pass" which provides great value to riders who aren't afraid of a little pedal power. The Enduro Pass gives you access to two gondola lifts, and when combined with the Excalibur alpine climb trail, you can have a pretty full-on day of riding. We would suggest 2/3 Crystal Bowl laps followed by Magic Carpet Ride to Pioneer. On your second lift, access T4 to LSD to Canyon Creek. This ~15km long, 6,200 ft descent takes you out of resort bounds and back towards town, and is a must-ride when at Kicking Horse. You can either drop a car at the Moonraker parking lot to shuttle back to the base of the resort, or earn some more post-ride beers by pedalling the single track via Odonata and Scalli-Mag.






















Kicking Horse Bike Park mountain biking trails

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After slipping and sliding around on the roots and rocks of Kicking Horse, we set off down the road to Fernie Alpine Resort, the final stop on our tour. Fernie boasts the oldest lift-accessed mountain bike park in the province, and maybe in North America. The resort has been letting riders up the Elk chair since 1990, which makes Fernie's bike park 8 years older than Whistler's and by my count 1 year older than Mt. Ste Anne, Quebec, the oldest continuous World Cup DH venue. PLEASE FACT CHECK ME PB ARMCHAIR EXPERTS, but I don't think there is a longer continually operating mountain bike park on the continent.

This season, Fernie is operating with an abbreviated bike park as their Timber Chair is out of commission for summer service. But don't let this put a damper on your plans as the Elk Chair is still turning and provides plenty of opportunities to supplement your ride time with tanning. Nick and the bike park crew at Fernie know how to make some wicked trails, we had a blast on Cat's Pyjamas and Case Closed. We actually had so much fun on Case Closed we never even stopped to take photos.













Fernie Alpine Resort mountain biking trails

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Presented by:
Kicking Horse
Fernie
Mountain Biking BC

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MENTIONS: @MountainBikingBC / @ferniealpineresort / @kickinghorsemtn / @the.free.radicals / @braedynkozman

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Fernie Alpine Resort, Kicking Horse Bike Park

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