“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt” – Margaret Atwood

This is the time of year where dirt is everywhere. It stows away in pant cuffs, boots, coat pockets, travels into trucks, washing machines, stains the floor of your shower, and somehow even manages to find its way into that delicious P B & J sandwich you brought for lunch. Escape is futile as we decidedly surrender the battle of cleanliness in exchange for battling time, Mother Nature, and host of other challenges to bring you Legendary Summer 2014 at Fernie Alpine Resort.

With just one week left until opening day on June 28th, we are feeling the crunch. After a week with some sort of rain almost every day, our trails were a soupy mess with the new cuts specifically being totally unworkable. Instead, we spent our time amping up high traffic favorites like Top Gun and Bin Logdin, and rebuilding the berms and widening the upper section of Ben’s Big Rig. Now with a weekend of sunshine and warm temperatures under our belt, we can move forward to put the final touches on the all new sections of Mr. Berms and Duff Dynasty, albeit a week later that planned.

We were able to plow the road to the Timber Chair unload last Thursday…a momentous occasion when you consider that we had over 4 meters of settled snowpack this winter. Our Bike Crew, the Saw Crew, Mechanics, Cat Drivers, Carpenters, and Millwrights labored away to ensure we can deliver the dark side on opening weekend. The uppermost section of Timber sidetrack will remain closed for now (still completely buried under snow) but riders can expect to have Rumplestumpskin from the 100% road to base, Bike Thief from top to bottom, and TNT from the four way intersection with Rumplestumpskin (above the White Pass Load). There will be occasional snow, and there is still much work to do but we figure that the stoke factor may blur some of those blemishes as your slay your favorite Timber trails for the first time ever on opening weekend.

The final countdown is among us. I, for one, can’t wait for the day when I am moving less dirt and riding more of it. I hope you fellow Loam Rangers are also dreaming about crushing berms, dreaming of some new trail combo’s, or sampling some of our new trail improvements. Just a reminder that as part of the Fernie Trail Alliance Roll and Sole Trail Festival, the resort will be hosting a DH race on opening Saturday. For more information or to register check out the events section of our webpage www.skifernie.com/summer . In the meantime, we have got lots more dirt to move. See you in five days.

Sincerely,

Your Fernie Alpine Resort Bike Crew