Fernie Alpine Resort has made a number of enhancements to its Legendary Bike Park for this upcoming summer season including:

Lower Mountain upgrades and reroutes to Lower Canada Cup, Deer Trail, Double Creek, and Top Gun to accommodate the Aerials Park. Current plans mean these trails will actually grow in length, see berms and rollers added to the flat ski run sections on the lower mountain and a large bridge rebuild. Deer trail riders will now have opportunity to ride through open alpine flower meadows on their way to base.

TNT below the White Pass load has received a reroute into the trees as alternative to steep shale slope on Deep Sea

New upper section to Ben’s Big Rig which doubled its length. All riders now have option to ride single track instead of access road

New Cedar Trail single-track provides beginner riders with single-track option that meanders through old growth cedar forest before rejoining existing Cedar Trail road

Phat Larry’s, new bridges and short re-route sections

Boom, Cedar, Larch, View, Gorbie, Hobbits now available for hiking traffic from the Elk Chair to base

New Peak to Park hiking options (can hike from Polar Peak to Fernie Provincial Park).

New dates for Fernie Alpine Resort Bike Festival and Lungbuster as well as Furious 3 and TransRockies utilizing FAR Bike Park this season (keep an eye on Facebook Events listings for details)

New Skills Park Features
Dog friendly zone on Silk and Manchuria Trails
Continuing to work on resurfacing trails and technical terrain feature upgrades.

Along with Mountain Biking Fernie Alpine Resort Legendary Summer also includes activities such as the NEW Aerial Park & Zipline, Hiking, Mountain Top Lunch, Sightseeing, Tennis and more! Visit Fernie for its Preview Weekend on June 23/24 – Official Opening Date is Friday June 29th!

All bikes shapes and sizes are accepted, parts, and any other random bike or outdoor gear you just don’t need any more bring it to the Elks Hall!

Following the bike sway take in the BBQ and the bike movie Strength in Numbers!

May 26 2012

Bike & Gear Swap – Elks Hall
7:00pm-9:00pm Friday night Drop -Off
9:00-10:00 AM Saturday – Drop-off
10:00-2:00 PM Saturday – Sale
2:00-3:00 PM Saturday – Item Pickup

Percentage of sale goes to FMBC. Your choice of 10% (members only) 20%, 50% or 100% donation to FMBC. You can also choose to cap your donation at a maximum of $250.

Bikers BBQ
11:30 – 2:00PM – Elks Hall

Strength in Numbers Bike Movie
$10 non members, $5 members, 8PM at the Elks Hall on Saturday Night

Here is a video production from Nic Genovese:

Wam Bam Dirt Jump Jam 2011 from Nic Genovese on Vimeo.

For more on the Wam Bam: http://fernie.com/blog/2011/08/fernies-wam-bam-dirt-jump-jam/

See here is Snake Bite ridden in its original downhill direction.

Thanks to the great vision and hard work by those who built the trail!

Wade Abeli, who is working with Community Futures Crowsnest Pass as a consultant, told Ranchland council June 7 that there is a project underway for a 140 kilometres mountain bike trail development through the Pass and north into Ranchland.

“The original plan was a tourism cluster development,” Abeli said.

The project is a rural diversification initiative to promote non-motorized recreation within the Crowsnest corridor, Abeli told council, which will have a spin-off of economic increases for area businesses.

The trail system, which will include 10 looped mountain bike paths and a mountain bike skills park, are being given a rubber stamp of approval by the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA), which is being involved in the development of the trail master plan.

The plan also includes an epic trail. Only four epic trails exist in Canada, and these draw riders from all over North America.

“Epic trails attract a certain kind of rider — the cream of the crop — the ones who tend to stay and spend their money within the community as well,” he said. “Having an epic trail would be a very large drawing card.”

The IMBA has recognized international guidelines, Abeli told council.

“Their basic premise is everything is built to sustainable standards, with minimal impact to the environment” Abeli said.

The plans and maps are available on www.ridecrowsnest.com.

“Where we’re at today is we have a draft master plan in place that the IMBA has developed for us, as well as a group of proposed trails,” said Abeli. “We are now in the referral process.”

Alberta Sustainable Resources Development (SRD) and Alberta Tourism have been given the master plan, and various departments of SRD are looking at it. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and Alberta Environment are not involved in the process, because it isn’t applicable, he said. The Nature Conservancy has said it was not compatible with their view of land management.

“A few of the trails that are proposed in this plan are within the MD of Ranchland. None of them are on private lands, though,” said Abeli. “We thought it was very appropriate to approach you and get comments.”

The trail development will not use existing cutlines, accesses or trails, because of the requirement of width, slope and grade, and will built by hand.

Four summer students have been hired, working by shovel and chain saws, building the trail and cutting small saplings and deadwood.

The initial focus is the ski hill in Blairmore.

“It’s central and mostly private land, owned by Devon and under recreational lease to the municipality,” said Abeli.

A skills park will also be built at Blairmore.

The second area of development will be at the Allison/Chinook area, he said, which fits in with the forestry land use zone. This network will be a prime venue for hosting provincial or national cross-country races.

He told council that in meeting with Tourism and Parks, everyone seemed very comfortable with the idea of the cluster trails, which fit with the planned recreational land use of the area.

The trail system will also double as a snow shoe path, he said, giving it an additional use in an alternate season.

The trails would be able to be used for bike races, which require a single track.

“IMBA designs everything on a stacked loop system,” he said.

Cyclists will have to ride through easy trails to access intermediate, then hard trails and expert trails, and finally the epic trail. All trails have an average grade of 10 per cent or less, with a maximum grade of 15 per cent, and will be sloped to shed water easily, he said. The master plan states that a maximum grade of 30 per cent is allowed on the expert trails.

“There will be constant grade reversals so water doesn’t have an ability to get any momentum,” he said.

The easier trails will be natural surface, using natural mineral soil in the work area or imported mineral soil and material, but the more advanced trails will use natural mineral soil.

Council told Abeli that one of the Ranchland mandates is to reduce environmental impacts and reduce off-highway vehicle (OHV) usage in the area.

“To be honest, the number one question is how are you going to keep dirt bikes off it,” said Abeli. “ATVs aren’t going to be a problem because it’s not wide enough.”

However, he noted that it would be almost impossible to keep OHVs off the trails, and that it would ultimately be an enforcement issue.

“The odd quader will try it.”

Abeli said they have also been asked who will be responsible for maintaining the networks.

“We will be building a sustainability plan. The thought right now is that the local club (United Riders of Crowsnest) will adopt this process and keep it moving forward, in that we are looking at that as a volunteer-based program and it will flourish or die,” he said.

Ag fieldman Carla Bick asked about the viability of the network if there was nobody to maintain it.

“At the moment, Community Futures carries the liability,” he said. “This is a slight vulnerability if the club folds and there’s trails that have been developed.”

Although 140 kilometres have been proposed, it is not certain if all the network will receive approval for all of the proposed trails.

A trail can cost between $5,000-$30,000 per kilometre, he said.

“It’s pretty safe to say that the project is around $2 million. We don’t have that, not even close.”

To draw riders from Calgary, they will need to have about four hours of trail ridership time, he said.

“If we end up with 100 kilometres of trail built, we could be servicing hundreds, if not thousands, on the trail network,” he said. “If you build it, they will come.”

1. Built incredible trails

Our trailbuilding professionals teamed with IMBA Canada partners, clubs, and volunteers across the nation to build and design more sustainable, fun-to-ride singletrack than ever before. This fall, more than 145 km of trail was designed in Crowsnest Pass, AB alone.

And thanks to members like you, the 2010 Canadian Trailbuilding Fund helped to support five pro-bono trail projects, including consultations with the National Capital Commission, the Town of Tilsonburg, ON and the Grand River Conservation Authority, among others.

2. Organized advocates at the provincial level

In September, 2010 IMBA Canada launched the Canadian Regional Leadership Advisory Council program to coordinate our efforts and expand our reach by bridging the gap between local IMBA Canada affiliated clubs and IMBA Canada’s national office. With support from Mountain Equipment Co-op, RLACs facilitate communication and networking between IMBA Canada affiliated clubs within a region, and provide IMBA Canada with representation on a provincial level.

3. Put a Canadian Trail Care Crew on the road

No IMBA program has touched more people, or improved more trail miles than the Subaru-IMBA Trail Care Crews, now in their 14th year in the United States. Every week their mobile classrooms bring together trail enthusiasts of all stripes to learn about sustainable trail design and work together side by side.

Thanks to partners Parks Canada and Trans Canada Trail, 2010 was the year to put our very own Canadian crew on the road. The IMBA Canada Trail Care Crew meets with trail groups and land managers and spreads the word about IMBA Canada. To read more, check out the 2010 Trail Care Crew Impact Report.

4. Made your voice heard

IMBA Canada staff and representatives provided a voice for mountain bikers at the Parks Canada National Assessment on Mountain Biking in March, resulting in new opportunities and guidelines for the activity in our National Parks, Historic Sites and Marine Conservation Areas.

5. Put kids on bikes

The 2010 edition of the International Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day was by far our biggest and most successful yet, with more than 1,500 Canadian kids participating, and close to 21,000 worldwide!

6. Parked a bike at the table

In November, IMBA Canada’s executive director attended the National Trails Leadership Roundtable on behalf of Canadian mountain bikers — ensuring our place in the trails community, as national collaboration and strategies are developed.

7. Rallied the bike industry

From the largest manufacturers to the smallest retail shops, IMBA has built a great network of supporters in the bike industry who work together to raise funds and keep trails open to bikes. IMBA Canada rallied the bike industry to work more closely with advocates and riders at the 2010 Decline Symposium in Whistler.

8. Invested in new technology

Last spring, IMBA Canada upgraded our back-end system (CMS for you techies), allowing us to better store, manage, and interact with our members and website users. The new system also allows members to log in to check their membership status and customize how we communicate with them.

9. Cultivated partnerships to expand our reach

We’ve continued to grow and develop our national partnerships with Parks Canada and the National Capital Commission — Working together on projects like the Canadian Trail Care Crew, and providing pro-bono consulting services in Gatineau Park. IMBA Canada also added the Trans Canada Trail to our list of national partners in 2010, signing a Memorandum of Understanding with them in June.

10. Grew our team of trail advocates

2010 has been a big year for capacity building for IMBA Canada. Not only have we added more programs to our Canadian offer, but we hired three new full time staff, including a communications coordinator, bringing our team to eight and giving us more clout in the Canadian trails community.