It’s a scene that likely seems unusual to the average Kootenay Rockies visitor. But in fact, it’s becoming increasingly common.

Further, resort owners and tourism entrepreneurs large and small are banking on their bet that mountain biking of all types is here in the Kootenay Rockies to stay, complimenting the region’s world-class tourism draws—like golf, skiing, hot springs and incomparable geographical grandeur—the activities and famous destinations that bring visitors and their tourism dollars to the Kootenay Rockies every year.

Resorts Retrofitting for Riders

 In particular, lift-accessed mountain biking is making one of the biggest marks on the region’s tourism landscape as of late.

Seven years ago, Fernie Alpine Resort began operating one of its lifts, opening the mountain’s maintenance roads and a few hiking trails during the summer for bikers. Today, the mountain runs two chairs for riders, including its huge high-speed Timber Bowl quad. Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, the company that owns Fernie Resort, has spent over $1 million on capital improvements, staffing, construction and maintenance  of its 34-trail network and bike park. A schedule of introductory, kids and women’s camps is offered throughout the summer. Passes are offered on a daily and seasonal basis.

With an investment boom in lift-accessed mountain biking over roughly the past four years, many of the same opportunities are today offered throughout the Kootenay Rockies region. Lift-accessed riding is now available  late June through early September at Invermere’s Panorama, Golden’s Kicking Horse, Kimberley, and Rossland’s Red Resort, which debuted its new park this summer.

The trend is evident across the province, with resorts following Intrawest’s lead at Whistler/Blackcomb, home to the world’s  biggest mountain bike park. Kamloops’ Sun Peaks is also considered one of the province’s best lift-accessed riding destinations, with Vernon’s Silver Star turning heads too following a $300,000 investment in the retrofitting of its 1,600 vertical-foot Comet Six Pack Express with roll-on bike mounts, the hire of a fulltime six-to-eight man trail building and maintenance crew and the meticulous excavation of numerous new trails; all efforts made in the spring of 2005.

Trail Networks Well Established in Most Communities

 There are far more options for mountain bikers beyond the lift lines and villages of the Kootenay Rockies’ large resorts. 

In some communities, trail networks—built entirely by avid volunteer riders—have existed for nearly two decades. In 1990, there were only a few trails cut on the mountain and creek sides around Fernie. Today there are over 100. Some trail networks, like those in Nelson and Rossland, are renown around the mountain biking world. Single track networks in Cranbrook, Kimberley, Golden, Castlegar, Revelstoke and Christina Lake are regularly used by locals and visitors.

With land use rights and insurance issues proving the sport’s biggest hurdle, agreements are slowly being made with both private and Crown stakeholders, with the help of all levels of government. In 2003, the Rossland Trails Society secured over $140,000 in federal and regional funds to expand and maintain the city’s hiking, biking and cross-country network, which runs through Crown and privately held land.

The Nelson Cycling Club in late 2004 arranged a gentleman’s agreement with two private land owners for the city’s Mountain Station trail network, with 16 trails now regularly maintained using funds from the Central Kootenay Regional District.

As part of its Spirit of 2010 Rails To Trails initiative, the province has helped upgrade 700 kilometres of abandoned heritage rail line throughout B.C. for cycling and other recreational activities, including stretches in the Slocan Valley, Salmo to Nelson and the nearby Kettle Valley. Portions of the Kootenay Rockies’ Rail to Trails network will also link up to the Trans Canada Trail, the federal government-sponsored cycling and hiking route being built coast to coast.

With mountain biking opportunities in almost every community and 20 bike shops throughout the region, shuttle services—businesses that drive riders and their bikes to and from trailheads—have sprung up in Golden, Rossland, New Denver, Nelson and Revelstoke. Fernie’s Fat Tire Adventures, established in 1995, takes as many as 300 clients a summer from all over the world to riding destinations in the Kootenay Rockies and other parts of B.C.

With lift-accessed single track, community networks and efforts like both the Rails to Trails and the Trans Canada Trail combined, the Kootenay  Rockies region now lays claim to arguably the largest and most diverse selection of mountain biking holiday options in the world—in a province deemed by the International Mountain Bike Association to be “the ultimate global mountain biking location”  in both 2003 and 2004.

It stands to reason then, that for mountain bikers world-wide, the Kootenay Rockies region is the place to be.