Articles about Fernie and Fernie Alpine Resort Summer
New this summer in our rental shop, located in the Fernie Adventure Centre, we’ll have SCOTT Genius 750 cross country bikes available. To see the trails (marked in purple) surrounding the mountain check out our online trail map and for more information regarding trails around Fernie, B.C visit the Tourism Fernie website or the Fernie Mountain Bike Club’s website.
- Published in Summer
We’re proud to be recipients of the 2016 TripAdvisor Award of Excellence. Now in its sixth year, the achievement celebrates hospitality businesses that have earned great traveler reviews on TripAdvisor over the past year. Certificate of Excellence recipients include accommodations, eateries and attractions located all over the world that have continually delivered a quality customer experience.
Thank you for your great reviews and helping Fernie Alpine Resort receive this prestigious award!
View our reviews or leave your own on our TripAdvisor page.
1) Lost Boys Lookout at Fernie Alpine Resort
How to get there: Ride the Timber Chair to the top and walk a short distance past Lost Boys Café over to the Lost Boys Lookout
What you’ll see: Amazing landscapes of the surrounding peaks of the mountains and of the town of Fernie below.
2) Eagle’s Eye at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort
How to get there: Ride the Eagles Express Gondola from the Plaza to the summit, step outside and see the Eagle’s Eye Restaurant walkway in front of you
What you’ll see: Spectacular views of 6 National parks surrounding the resort (and eat a delicious meal as well).
3) Kimberley, B.C – Lois Creek Trails
How to get there: Parking is available at Centennial Hall. To enter Lois Creek Trails go to either the North End of trail Street, the intersection of 8th and Elko Street or at Centennial Hall at the old Legion Tracks.
What you’ll see: Gorgeous mountain vistas and a variety of wildlife along the trails.
Photo Alpenglow BnB
4) Lizard Lookout at Fernie Alpine Resort
How to get there: Ride the Elk Chair to the top and walk a short distance into Lizard Bowl
What you’ll see: Stunning views of the Elk River & town of Fernie
5) Via Ferrata at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort – The Ultimate Mountain View
How to get there: Ride the Eagles Express Gondola from the Plaza to the summit, step outside and proceed to Eagle’s Eye, look for the tent to meet up with your guide and group. Once everyone is there you’ll do some training and head right over to the suspension bridge taking you to the Terminator Peak for the climb of your life!
What you’ll see: If you’re brave enough to turn around and take a look behind you’ll see a stunning stretch of mountains while hanging off the Terminator Peak including 6 National parks, the resort below you and Eagle’s Eye Restaurant off in the distance.
Main photo – Lost Boys Lookout, Fernie Alpine Resort
- Published in Summer
Summer might be the best time to get outdoors and enjoy what the mountains have to offer in our amazing backyard in Canada. In recent years, ski resorts in British Columbia have made a series of additions, upgrades and updates to have family friendly activities for adults and the little’s as well as keeping the hardcore activities available for the summer thrill seeker.
- Fishing
Summer is a great time to escape the hustle and city bustle, to relax and recharge. The tranquility of fishing will help those kids forget all about the stress of making the grade at school and will help you take a real mental vacation from work. Fishing provides kids (of all ages) a great lesson about being calm and one with nature in an authentic environment. More information about fishing in Fernie is on the Tourism Fernie website.
- Take a Hike
No, we’re not telling you to get lost, but we are literally telling you to take a hike. Fernie, Kimberley and Kicking Horse all offer hiking in a mountain setting with amazing views at Fernie and Kicking Horse the lift accessed hiking provides some epic views you won’t on any regular old hike. For more information about hiking in mountain towns visit the Tourism Fernie, Tourism Golden or Tourism Kimberley websites and for more information about lift accessed resort hiking visit the Fernie Alpine Resort or Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
- See a real bear up close (and learn too)
Perhaps one of the most unique aspects at Kicking Horse is Boo the Bear who lives year round at the resort and has made a name for himself as a local celebrity. Boo has an interesting story of how he ended up making his home at Kicking Horse, in the largest protected Grizzly Bear habitat in the world. While living at the resort he’s offered us humans a rare and special opportunity to learn about the life and practices of Grizzly Bears. Kids and adults of all ages will enjoy taking a Grizzly Bear Interpretive tour and learning about his life at the horse! Get more information about Boo and Interpretive tours on the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
- Monkey Around
The Aerial Park at Fernie Alpine Resort is a good introduction to find out how the little’s in your family feel about heights. They can try out the free kids aerial park, or if they meet the height restrictions can venture up in the trees. The lesson beforehand from our knowledgeable guides and extensive safety system will allow them to feel safe while far away from the ground! If you have a very adventurous little one (who is at least 10), use the Aerial Park as a stepping stone to trying the Via Ferrata at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Get more information and book the Aerial Park on the Fernie Alpine Resort website.
- Explore historic towns
Many towns in British Columbia have a strong history in mining and have museums or memorials in town to commemorative and conserve the memories. Along with learning about history, try out some of these unique town experiences;- Visit Beanpod Chocolate (Canada’s Traditional Chocolate maker) in historical Downtown Fernie. Beanpod website.
- Walk the downtown platzl in Kimberley (also location of the Kimberley museum). More info.
- Walk with Wolves in Golden, a truly unique experience in the Canadian Rockies. More info.
- Visit the Heritage town – Fort Steele (near Kimberley, B.C). More info.
- Pop into the Clawhammer Press in Downtown Fernie. Clawhammer Press website.
Clawhammer Press in Downtown Fernie
- Take a golf lesson
Getting them started young is a great way to build impressive golf skills! Check out our websites to see about specials like ‘take a kid to the course day’, ‘family stay & play packs’ and family golf lessons. Or, if your little’s aren’t into golfing the big courses, try the Mini Putt at Riverside Campground in Kimberley.
Father/son golfing at Trickle Creek Golf Resort in Kimberley, B.C
- Sunbathe and Swim in the outdoor pools
Staying at ski resorts in the summer offers a full service experience! While many of our hotels have in house or nearby Spas to pamper, gyms to keep in shape and outdoor pools/hot tubs for the kids to keep entertained for hours! Looking for a family basecamp in Fernie – check out Lizard Creek Lodge.
- Eat all the food
It might be a bit of a hidden fact (although gaining more and more recognition), mountain towns are the best place to have great food! Each have their own unique restaurants, bars or cafes to check out – all come with an authentic mountain town vibe (guaranteed).
Here is some advice to get your mountain foodie experience started;
Food, our second favourite F word
Top 5 Places to eat in Kimberley
- Mountain Bike ON a mountain
Kicking Horse Mountain Resort is a great starting point to get the passion flowing for mountain biking, with a kid’s skills course in the base area set up each summer. Fernie Alpine Resort has also added a myriad of beginning trails over the last couple season to provide a gentle ride down the summer ski slopes. In addition to beginner trails, Fernie Alpine Resort along with the Fernie Trails Society and Fernie Nordic Club unveiled a new Peak to Park multi use trail last summer. Adding a different experience to the mountain biking game – ride the chairlift at Fernie Alpine Resort and bike your way back down to the town. More information about mountain biking at Fernie Alpine Resort and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort can be found on our websites.
- All the best fests
What’s your jam? Outdoor music? Farmers Markets? Hardcore racing events? There is something nearly every weekend in Fernie, Kimberley or Golden. Check out the online events calendars on the resort websites or town tourism websites to find out the schedule for this summer!
Photos: @calsnape, Cali Sammel, Patrick Majer, Nick Nault and Wapiti Music Festival
- Published in Summer
One summer afternoon riding the Elk Chair for an afternoon lap on the mountain bike trails I watched as a black bear sow and two cubs, browsed peacefully for huckleberries below the lift line. At Fernie Alpine Resort you’re never far from raw nature and mountain adventure. It is the quintessential resort for summertime exploration where you can spot deer, moose, bear and other wildlife in a natural setting, hike on alpine trails waste deep in wildflowers, explore windswept ridges from mountain peak to mountain peak and test your technical mountain bike skills on steep trail or ease into some flowy singletrack. Or perhaps, you’ll simply go in search of fossils with your kids.
Enjoy breakfast and an espresso in the resort village, then load the Timber Chair, your ticket to adventure as it shuttles you from the resort village to tree line and the trailhead for numerous hikes ranging from hour long outings to full-day ridge top rambles in the beautiful Lizard Range. Families can opt to walk among the Indian paintbrush, mountain harebells, cinquefoil and other flowers towards the wooden platform overlooking the Sand Creek Valley, and descend to a field of massive boulders known as the Mammoth Droppings, before circling back to Lost Boys Cafe for lunch with an astounding view 
over the Elk River Valley. Ambitious hikers might choose to scramble to the height of land and traverse a scenic limestone ridge, over the rounded hump of Elephant Head and on to tag the summit of 2134-metre Polar Peak, the highest point within resort boundaries. And the even more ambitious and experienced hikers may want to tackle the Mountain Lakes Trail, otherwise known as Heiko’s Trail. Built by Fernie legend Heiko Socher, founder of Fernie Alpine Resort way back in 1964, this 21 kilometer trail between Hartley Lake Road near the resort and Island Lake Lodge crosses two mountain passes and has everything you want in a mountain hike – meadows, waterfalls, caves, snowfields, soaring rock walls and more meadows. On any of these adventures, you might even find a fossil. Fernie is famous for them, especially for the legendary jumbo ammonite measuring 1.5 metres wide, discovered in 1947 in the Coal Creek Valley across the Elk River Valley from the resort. On mountain, you can visit another Fernie legend, Nature Bob in the Interpretive Centre at the top of the Elk Chair, go on a guided hike to bone up on local flora and fauna, or take a short stroll to see an equally impressive ammonite fossil.
Lift-accessed mountain biking? You bet. Elk Chair offers up a range of easy to advanced trails while all routes from the top of Timber are advanced and technical, with rocks, roots and drops on the riding menu. The base area at Fernie is also integrated with the region’s extensive X country trail system, with pedal-from-your-condo or hotel access to many trails linking the resort to Mount Fernie Provincial Park and beyond.
Near the base area, you’ll find more fun for kids and adults, with a 500-foot-long zip line that has you soaring through the air with the birds, and a skill and balance-testing Aerial Park with cool features like the Rickety Bridge, Shrinking Islands and Picket Fence.
There is something special about Fernie and the Lizard Range. Skiers and boarders have been drawn by the legendary powder for decades. However, in summer, it’s equally special. The mountains, made accessible by chairlifts, take on a different character. Rugged ridges, meandering trails, cool forests, and colourful meadows – it’s a place that inspires you to get out and explore on two feet or two wheels. Take your pick.
Words: Andrew Findlay
Images: Robin Siggers, Nick Nault & Brent Grabowski
Main Image: @calsnape
If you think ski resorts are only to be visited during the fall and winter months in Canada, you would be very wrong! (Arguably), some of the best fun to had at a ski resort is in fact during the summer months. Fernie Alpine Resort in Fernie, B.C and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, BC both offer unique summer experiences for the extreme adventurer, the not so overly adventurous and families!
Take a Hike or go for a Bike
What do ski resorts have that almost no other places have? Chairlifts & gondolas! At ski resorts some of the best hiking is at the top of the mountain; access these scenic trails as well as mountain biking trails through the lifts at Fernie Alpine Resort and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Both resorts take special care of their trails in the summer to ensure they are a smooth ride down on your bike or a safe walk along the ridge with the family.
Photos: Lizard Bowl viewing platform at Fernie Alpine Resort with spectacular views of both the bowl and town, access via summer road hiking trail and biking with the family at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
Fly through the Trees or Scale the Mountain Face
In Fernie, BC you can fly through the trees in the Aerial Park (think a series of obstacle courses in the tree tops), both kids and adults have a great time attempting the features! Don’t worry if your child doesn’t meet the height or age requirements, there is also a FREE mini kids park located nearby (parental supervision required). For an even more extreme adventure, hit up the new Via Ferrata at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and brave this ‘iron road’ by climbing along a series of steps on the Terminator mountain face, only after you cross the suspension bridge!
Don’t worry about a thing! Both our air activities include instructions, qualified guides and of course you’re harnessed in.
Photos: Aerial Park at Fernie Alpine Resort and Via Ferrata at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
Go for a Bite on a Mountaintop Patio
With the gorgeous British Columbia weather on our side, there are a variety of mountain eateries as well as top of the mountain patios for you to stop by during your adventure or for a lengthy lounge session! Here is a short list of not to miss, fully licensed, patios (there are many more places to eat at both resorts as well as in town);
Lost Boys Café in Fernie (open weekends and located at the top of the Timber Chairlift)
Eagle’s Eye Restaurant in Kicking Horse (located at the Top of the Gondola)
Lizard Creek Lodge patio at Fernie Alpine Resort (located at the base of the Resort)
Peaks at Kicking Horse (located at the base of the Resort)
Photos: Lost Boys Cafe at Fernie Alpine Resort and Eagle’s Eye Restaurant at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
Learn about Nature
The mountains are an amazing opportunity to enjoy the outdoors while learning important safety information about the environment surrounding us. New this summer at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort are the ‘Rambler’s Hikes’, previous themes including staying safe in bear country, geology on the trench and nothing but photos. While at Fernie Alpine Resort, make your way up the Elk Chair to Nature Bob’s Interpretive Centre to learn about the flora and fossils found in the region. Guided Hikes with Nature Bob are also available where you’ll learn about our trails, trees and berries including which ones are safe to eat and which ones aren’t!
Photos: NEW Ramblers Hike at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and Nature Bob’s Interpretive Centre at Fernie Alpine Resort.
In Canada we know the summer season is short, but we still have time! So don’t delay, book your summer trip to a resort today!!
- Published in Summer
Fernie Summer Opening Day Info!
Fernie Alpine Resort Trail Crew Update #3
June 26, 2015
The Hustle & Flow
Twenty-Four hours and counting. That’s it. One rotation of the Earth around the sun until we hand over the keys to you Loam Rangers for another Legendary Summer at Fernie Alpine Resort. The full Trail Crew team officially all started back at work two weeks ago and we’ve been hustling ever since to make sure you have some flow on opening day – Saturday June 27th.
When spring started, we thought we had Mother Nature backed into the corner and the fight won. Well, she came charging right back at us throwing a knockout combination right to the kisser. That unseasonably warm and dry weather we fought all winter has continued to linger through the region, providing us with some challenging conditions to work with this spring. Usually at this time of year, we are lucky if we can drive up the Timber Side, let alone open it for biking. There is likely snow still to shovel out of shaded trails like Hollow Tree and Boom Trail, conditions are tacky, if not full-on greasy. This year, the crew has already summited Polar Peak to install the hiking trail signage (boot skiing still possible!), days have been spent weed whacking shoulder high alder to improve sight lines on every trail, and we have already had to water trails just to complete basic dirt work. With much still to do, and little time write about it, here are a few key things you need to know before hopping on the lift…
- June 27 & 28th is going to be an awesome weekend to be in Fernie, BC. The Bike Park opens for the season, the Roll & Sole Trails Fest is taking over town, and the Fernie 3 mountain bike race is happening everywhere in between.
- It is going to be hot. Like surface of the sun hot… at a forecasted 36C. Drink water.
- There is a lot of new stuff happening in the Bike Park. Please start off your summer with a slow inspection lap. You will have to do a little exploring to find all our work but some of the key changes include:
– fresh dirt work on upper Rumplestumpkin, Eville, Duff Dynasty, and Mr. Berms
– Phase 1 of our new trail Neverland will be open (watch for the sign on lower Rumplestumpskin)
– New exit of Will Power at the Bear Load
– Upper Big Rig has been widened
– The Phat Larry’s and Holo Bike entrance has been adjusted and a pull out lane added
– Top Gun has a few new berms and jumps (more to come!)
– Hollow Tree has had a few select corners changed and some of the braided trails on the lower section closed to reduce the environmental damage occurring from those riders looking to choose their own adventure through the forest
– New exit of Bike Thief at the bottom of Currie Bowl. Please also note that Canada Cup DH will be closed for opening weekend (major reno including new jump line in the works).
- Our Bike Crew will be on hand to answer any questions or to point you in the right direction this weekend. Please come talk to us…we are here to help and we would love to fill you in on some of the other great projects we have in store this summer! That being said…please expect fast, dry and loose conditions throughout the mountain. Choose your speed and trails accordingly.
See you in a few hours,
Your Fernie Alpine Resort Bike Crew
The Fernie 3, the ultimate all-mountain three-day classic mountain bike stage race, offers something for everybody from June 27th to 29th. The Fernie 3 is being held on Fernie’s spectacular singletrack mountain bike trails on the pre-Canada Day weekend and the organizers work to offer events for all riders.
The Fernie 3 caters to riders of all ages, both new and old, beginners and gnarled veterans alike–with focus on fun on the best singletrack stages ever. The categories will feature a traditional three day solo stage race however will also include a one day solo, a youth race for U13 and U16, and a bike rally for U9.
Fernie Mountain Bike Club members get a 15% discount–ask for the code. Register now to be part of this amazing event!
More information & registration.
Congratulations to Fernie resident – Barrie Elliott on your Chopped Canada win! The head chef at Livery Restaurant in Fernie, Barrie plans to use her $10,000 grand prize to buy into the business she’s worked so hard to create!
There is no denying it, Fernie is a town that likes to party. And party hard! Perhaps the only thing that outweighs fun in this town is the shared love of outdoor adventure. The last weekend in June is a prime example of the most fantastic collection of Fernie festivals, including the grand opening on Fernie Alpine Resort’s Legendary Summer, the Roll & Sole Trail fest and the Fernie 3! Keep the party going until Monday and top it all off with local jam night at the Kodiak Lounge.
Fernie Alpine Resort Opening Day
June 27th kicks off two months of summer fun at Fernie Alpine Resort. The bike park is one of the best in the country, while some of the newer summer activity features draw guests from all around including the Aerial Park and Zipline. With this season seeing a new trail connecting the resort to the town’s nearby provincial park (Old Growth Cedar Trail) the experience of riding the lift and hiking or walking down to the park below can’t be beat! More info.
Roll & Sole Trail Fest
June 27th – 29th 
The Roll & Sole fest was introduced last summer by the Fernie Trail Alliance. A celebration of hiking, biking and running outdoors in Fernie! Participate with the whole family in events like the Bike Toss Challenge, Kids Scavenger Hunts or Obstacle course races. If competing isn’t your thing, stop by for the lunch social, beverage garden and live entertainment! More info.
Fernie 3
June 26th – 29th
Known as Fernie’s biggest cross country mountain bike race, the Fernie 3 is a 3 day event of single track riding. A race catering to kids, new riders or veterans, every participant receives a collectible finishers tshirt! More info.
Kodiak Lounge
June 29th 
A visit to Fernie really isn’t complete until you’ve experienced the local culture, one of the best places to do so is in the Kodiak Lounge located in the Raging Elk Hostel. Finish off your weekend on Monday night instead of Sunday and check out the local jam night starting at 8:30pm. If you don’t want to leave after your time here, sorry, it’s not our fault it’s so awesome in Fernie.
Coming to town for the weekend? Book a spot at the sensible Fernie Slopeside Lodge and don’t spend a bundle on accomm (spend it on fun)!
