Biking

Mountain biking in Fernie and the Elk Valley has become a favorite activity of those both residing in and visiting the area throughout the warm season.

The Fernie Trails and Ski Touring Club, which began in 1991, has worked consistently with a group of hardcore volunteers to build, maintain, and of course, utilize the wide network of trails in and around Fernie. Fernie’s trail network is incredibly accessible from town, which is why the popularity of the activity continues to grow, and why Fernie continues to draw more riders year after year.

The Fernie Trails and Ski Touring Club and its membership has joined forces with the Fernie Mountain Bike Club, Island Lake Lodge, the Fernie Nordic Society and Fernie Alpine Resort to form the Fernie Trails Alliance. During the course of the past three years, these groups combined efforts on several projects. The shared goals of public advocacy of recreational land use, and responsible stewardship of those lands, created a joint mission and resulted in furthering the cause of great mountain biking in Fernie.

One of the key successes of these groups in recent years has been the development of the Fernie Trail Guides and Fernie Mountain Bike Map (link). The trail maps detail Fernie’s main mountain biking areas including Fernie Ridge, Fernie Alpine Resort, Morrissey Ridge, and the Mount Fernie Park and Area. The maps have had several editions, each featuring newly developed trails as well as traditional hiking routes.

To purchase the latest addition of the Fernie Mountain Bike Map, visit a Fernie local sports store.

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Racehorse Pass Trail to Remain Open

Following the stakeholder consultation process, it looks like the Racehorse Pass trail has been removed from the government’s list of candidate roads to be decommissioned under the Cumulative Effects Management Framework project this summer. The Fernie Trails and Ski Touring Club participated in the process by asking that Racehorse Pass remain open for recreational use […]

Carpal Tunnel – Fernie’s Newest Trail

Fernie’s Newest Trail addition in Montane is named after a trail builders nemeses, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome! It is caused by excessive trail work over a long period and is characterized by sensations of tingling, numbness, or burning. Everyone in this trail crew can relate! This is first trail constructed by the newly established Coal Creek […]

E-bikes are Motorized Vehicles

E-bikes are motorized vehicles under the BC Wildlife Act and there are restricted areas around Fernie. With a potential $575 fine it’s best to be educated on where you can ride. The Restricted Use of Class 1 E-bikes (pedal assist) in the East Kootenays is NOT limited to hunting and there are about 20 Motor […]

Elk Rim Trails Not Ready to Ride

Fernie Trails volunteer Pat Gilmar hiked the Elk Rim Trails on Friday March 5th and confirmed that the Elk Rim Trails are NOT ready to ride. Pat commented that, “Pedal bikes should avoid the Elk Rim trails for now, another couple of week of sunshine is needed”. So, when is it appropriate to ride trails […]

North Kootenay Pass – Traverse the Southern Canadian Rockies

North Kootenay Pass and the Canadian Southern Rockies Traverse South of Banff National Park to the US Border there are many historical high elevation trails crossing the Great Divide between Alberta and British Columbia. South of Crowsnest Highway 3 there are only several passes that are tough but reasonably traversed on a mountain bike, North […]

FTSTC Funds FTA

The Fernie Trails & Ski Touring Club (FTSTC) presented the Fernie Trails Alliance with a cheque for $4000. The cheque represented 50% of 2019’s collected membership funds, the remaining 50% will be used for FTSTC trail maintenance projects. The FTSTC introduced the new Fernie Trails Winter & Summer 2019 membership last year. This years 2020 […]

Fernie Trails Winter & Summer 2019

The Fernie Trails & Ski Touring Club is pleased to announce the new Fernie Trails Winter & Summer 2019 membership. This membership includes Montane 4-season access, winter grooming, cabin access, summer trails and a FTA trail supporter pass. The “Fernie Trails Winter & Summer 2019” membership is available here for Winter & Summer 2019 $40/individuals […]

Fernie Backcountry is closed

All hiking and biking trails in Fernie and surrounding area are closed. This included our cabins; Thunder Meadows, Montane and Tunnel Creek. Unfortunately our Harvey Hut burnt in the out-of-control Lodgepole fire on the weekend. In the interest of public safety, effective at noon Pacific Time on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017, all Crown land within […]

Fernie Lucky 7’s Funding

The Fernie Transrockies Society (FTS) launched their latest mountain bike event, the Fernie Lucky 7’s, June with a round of applause from the participants. And the participants represented riders from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana and Idahio! The Fernie Trails & Ski Touring Club received $1400 for supporting the event. Ian Stokie and crew marked and […]

PORKY BLUE REGISTRATION 2017

Porky Blue 2017 will be on Saturday August 5th. Registration for this year’s Porky Blue will start on Monday July 24. Registration will be on the Zone 4 website for this year’s event. Late registration will take place from 8:00 – 9:30 the morning of the event. Please note only the first 100 participants will […]

2016 Winter Grooming on Montane Trails

Montane Blue groomed for biking Fernie Trails & Ski Touring Club has groomed 10 kilometers of ski road (Montane Green) and 10 km of multi-use (Montane Blue) for snow shoes and fat bikes. All the trails are signed and please do not walk or bike on the Montane Green roads that are groomed for Nordic Skiing […]

Lazy Lizard Connector – Bridge Completed

Lazy Lizard Bridge in Mount Fernie Park About 50 hours of volunteer time to build and install the Lazy Lizard Bridge last week. All of the cedar wood was donated by Alex Hamilton and his partners from the Alpine Trails condo development. Cheers to the Thunder Ridge crew who fundraised for this project last year. […]

Coal Discovery Trail – logging activity this summer

Jemi Fibre logging along Ridgemont Road and Coal Discovery Trail Jemi Fibre will be logging north of Fernie along the Coal Discovery Trail during the next few months. Some parts of the trail will be temporarily blocked during this activity and falling trees will be a hazard. Stay away from the active logging and turn […]

Lazy Lizard Connector ready for riding

Finished the trail link from Stove Trail across Mount Fernie Park to Lazy Lizard Trail on late Saturday, July 9. This 1,800 meter connector is ready to hike or ride as it gets sun dried, but is a bit soft until it gets compacted by tires and hikers. There is still a 10 meter bridge to build but […]

Columbia Basin Trails Meeting

See the attached meeting summary for the Columbia Basin Trails Meeting held June 10-11 in Fernie. Included in this summary are links to a number of websites that were referenced at this meeting and a link to an FTP site that hosts all of the resources we accessed at the event. Download here: TrailsMeetingSummary2016june20 As […]

Lazy Lizard Connector to Stove Trail is a GO!

Today we started the Lazy Lizard connector to Stove Trail. This is a big FTA project for this year that we had applied for to BC Parks over one year ago. This is Phase 5 of the Lazy Lizard Trail and involves about 2 kilometers of tree falling, brush cutting, excavator digging and numerous Thursday […]

Fernie Trans Canada Trail 2016

The FTA has started building new sections of the Trans Canada Trail in the Fernie area. The first 1.6 km are being built on the Montane property from Montane Trail (Ruby’s Way section) to the River Road Extension bridge over Coal Creek. An additional 2.5 km of the existing Montane Trail will be upgraded with water […]

Kushiest Cleanup May 19

The final chapter of the Kush-Kusier-Kushiest trilogy was repaired tonight by the FTA trail crew of 15 men and a boy. All sections available for riding now with new improved bermations by noted author Casey Berms. Rumor has it next book will be a rewrite of Purple Monkey Dishwasher on Thursday night, May 26.

FTA Kush Trail cleanup May 5

Our FTA trail crew had our first official work party on Kush Trail last night (May 5). About 15 of us got the majority of the logging debris from this winter’s logging operations sawed up and cleaned off the trail. The trail tread was nicely preserved in almost all the operations area, many thanks to […]

Fernie Brewing Donates

The Fernie Trails and Ski Touring Club (FT&STC) is very pleased to announce that Fernie Brewing Co. (FBC) donated $3671.64 to our club. Lets give a big thanks to FBC! This February 16th to March 31st, FBC featured the FT&STC in their “Cheers to Charity” fundraising program. The funds will help with ongoing trail and […]