Fernie conditions

[snopro]

I think the cities/town's of Revelstoke and Fernie are more interested in making sure skier's come to there destiation points than sledders. JMO.

 

[ferniesnow]

We're working on all that! This past weekend was a little disastrous but what are we to doo?

Groomed Thursday night, moved the SnowCat and the drag to the field downtown Friday for the Drag races and put finishing touches on the track. 6 am I leave for Fernie and the full day of volunteering for the Drag Races. Finish cleaning up the site and taking everything to storage (garbage cans, stakes, rope, trailers, speaker system, signage, generators, lights, hay bales, tents, all the racing forms, etc.) Get home at 8:00 pm and someone expects us to groom on Saturday night!!!

Drive to Fernie at 6:00 am on Sunday for the Poker Derby with proceeds to a young fellow who is battling cancer. Take the SnowCat and all the food, pop, prizes, etc out to the cabin and sort-of groom on the way (we know a day groom sucks but we need to due this for the boy). Leave at 7:00 am and get to the cabin at 11:00 am, start the fire and start cooking the free hamburgers, wieners, smokies, pop, etc that will be given out to all participants and any riders coming in from Corbin or the yellow gates. Start cleaning up at 2:30 pm and load all the left-overs and garbage into the SnowCat and start back. Temperature has warmed up 10 degrees since the morning. The trail is like slush; the SnowCat makes great big snowballs and everything sticks inside the mogul master (snow doesn't like to flow in these conditions). Can't cut nor pack; worse day of grooming in 8 years! Get back at 7:00 pm and drive an hour home. Eat and go to bed.

Monday, drive to Fernie for a guiding session (showing S&M dudes around some secret stashes) at 8:00 am. Trail is the shits and still very soft (did not freeze last night and rained all night and is still raining). Great day in the trees and meadows, lots of fresh and lots of untracked (guys were stuck all day) and the guys had the best riding ever! Load up the truck and it is still raining. Go to the bar for a beer. Some sledders and members ask if we are grooming tonight.......We will groom when we get some set-up temps. and then the ch!t hit the fan. I enjoy the beer with my flatland buddies and get home at 7:00 pm. Fresh pickerel for supper.

Temperature for the weekend is forecast at +10.....ah the life of a groomer operator!

PS All I can say to the statement "we've been coming for 6 years and....", it is a hell of a lot better than it used to be!

 

[snopro]

Wow Doug, wish you would spend a bit more time for the club. Lol. The life of a volunteer......The problem I see is peeps work hard at there jobs all week and expect everything to be perfect on there day off. Someone needs to tell them life isn't always perfect. Thanks for all the hard work Doug and keep up the good work even though Mother Nature doesn't always deal you the right cards.

 

[ferniesnow]

Everyone seems to complain about the trails. Sometimes they are rough, and it sucks, but these guys can't be everywhere. Anytime I've been out in the Fernie area, I rarely see people collecting fees/permits, etc. I go out of my way to find somewhere to donate to the club for their efforts in not only grooming, but maintaining a cabin, putting their time in for grooming, buying the machine, paying for fuel, maintainence, repairs, etc, as well as their time in keeping all the political stuff as bay so we have a place to ride.

I'm a flatlander, but in my younger years, I did operate a groomer for a few years. It's a thankless job. You go out in the middle of the night to areas where there is zero cell reception. Get a breakdown and you can be in big trouble. Some days we would groom, the next day a wind would pickup and our trail would be blown over. In the late 90's, when we worked it out, we couldn't afford a groomer. It was cheaper for us to rent a groomer from a local club for close to $100 per hour and we supply fuel and an operator. At 5-6 mph, barring no breakdowns or issues, every pass of the groomer we made was a few thousand dollars. Here in Fernie, I would assume they are grooming 30 miles a trip. I'm sure it costs them more than $100 an hour to run this thing with a volunteer operator now, so we're looking at atleast $600 a trip assuming he can maintain 5 mph....or $1200 a week. At $5 or $10 a trail pass, you need to find either 240 or 120 riders a week to pay up just to cover the grooming operation..sounds easier said than done when guys hit Fernie from multiple staging areas and likely still make use of the trail and the cabin.

Trail life completely comes down to how long the trail can setup for, what temperature it's setting up at, and how aggressive everyone is at riding it. Warmer days, the trail may never setup and it will only take a few machines to completely washboard it out. Cold days, you can have a nicely setup trail that will live considerably longer without much damage. My experience is the people who complain most about the condition of the trail are the ones who are usually to the bars around every corner.

I know FS and it doesn't take long to realize how much pride he has in doing a good job grooming. You can tell he's not doing this for himself, but for the enjoyment of everyone coming out the the area to ride. The guys are doing the best job they can with what they've got. This is one of those things that we are so spoiled by it, we don't realize how good we actually have it until it's gone.

What can I say? Thanks Geoff. Most peeps realize our dilemma and are sympathetic but then there are the keyboard heros and whiners. Grooming 101 and the only thing you learn is a simple fact: Have broad shoulders because mostly everyone can groom better, faster and more often.

 

[ferniesnow]

I have been coming to Fernie to ride for 6 years we always drive out Sunday so we can ride Mon to Fri. That is why I have an issue with how this pans out first off the town of Fernie or the RM should pay a staff member to groom the trails twice a week Mon and Fri and if needed or able a volunteer from the club could groom Sat night. Why do I say pay someone to do it in 6 years I have been coming out very seldom is the trail groomed. The town of Fernie and the Chamber of Commerce should take a bigger stake in creating a what is my opinion a sledders paradise. The benefits are big for the community and anyone in buisness knows this. I don't have an issue with volunteers doing what they can we bought passes this week like we always do in the hope that the situation improves. The condition of the trail is not solely the responsibility of the club and Ferniesnow the town needs to step up. Just my two cents in the hope that things improve.

We doo pay our operators to groom and the girls to collect trail passes. We know the City has to step up but have you ever banged a stone wall with your head? A week ago last Sunday, we (the FSA) had to plow the road and the parking lot so the sledders could get in to park. The City was busy doing streets and such. Sh*t happens and we are working on it.

 

[ferniesnow]

Wow Doug, wish you would spend a bit more time for the club. Lol. The life of a volunteer......The problem I see is peeps work hard at there jobs all week and expect everything to be perfect on there day off. Someone needs to tell them life isn't always perfect. Thanks for all the hard work Doug and keep up the good work even though Mother Nature doesn't always deal you the right cards.

Thanks Ken. It is all about me with the weekend warriors! The only place that charges $10/day to ride and if the trail is too bumpy (in our eyes) we don't charge and we still get big sheeeet from the beakers.

Oh well, life goes on and maybe I can groom past the pearly gates and everyone will be appreciative, eh!

 

[tater]

We should all stop bitching about this once and for all. The trail is bumpy more often than not. I ride there all the time. But if you don't like it stay home or go somewhere else. They only collect trail fees 10% of days I ride (usually only weekends). I always want a smooth trail but not about to complain. Fernie snow I feel for ya for always taking heat over this. People just don't get it.

 

[poo88]

I've only been to fernie sledding once but the trail was baby butt smooth an awesome.. Good work on that.. An I couldn't believe trail passes were only ten bucks when everywhere else is 20.. Keep up the good work.. Some people do appreciate what you guys do for us.

Sent from a phone likely at work

 

[polarisdragon800]

Pin it and your front end will skip over the majority of the bumps.


Sent from my mobile telephone

 

[polarice]

doesnt seem to matter what groomers do they can never do it right ... maybe those who sit back and bitch cause we never got to ride on a groomed trail should step up to the plate take days off during the week learn how to operate one get out there and do it.... only rode there once and paid the ten buck day fee but the trail was great ... keep up the great work ferniesnow you know some of us appreciate it.... maybe the club should hold the drags when the clocks drop back so you can get an extra hour of sleep

 

[raceu4it]

tisk, tisk. tisk. Oh my god, it's rough. I've always thought that every new model year of sled had better and better suspension. I remember riding down in Corbin in 80/81 on old blizzards wearing garbage bags to keep dry so we could back to the bowls, and i can't honestly remember anyone complaining. Oh yea, there was no grooming and we were having fun. Ahhh the simple days. lol you guys kill me. ferniesnow you're doing great!

 

[snopro]

tisk, tisk. tisk. Oh my god, it's rough. I've always thought that every new model year of sled had better and better suspension. I remember riding down in Corbin in 80/81 on old blizzards wearing garbage bags to keep dry so we could back to the bowls, and i can't honestly remember anyone complaining. Oh yea, there was no grooming and we were having fun. Ahhh the simple days. lol you guys kill me. ferniesnow you're doing great!

And those garbage bags are not a breathable material hey Dusty?

 

[Jvl]

trail was brutal today up coal creek. feels like old days.

 

[ferniesnow]

trail was brutal today up coal creek. feels like old days.

That trail wasn't even close to the olden days, bucko!

It is baby butt smooth now from the staging area to the Wrangler's Cabin. There may be a corner or two that were in the sunshine and were pretty hard so they didn't get cut quite enough but it was the best grooming snow this season.

 

[Jvl]

That trail wasn't even close to the olden days, bucko!

It is baby butt smooth now from the staging area to the Wrangler's Cabin. There may be a corner or two that were in the sunshine and were pretty hard so they didn't get cut quite enough but it was the best grooming snow this season.

thanks it really needed it bucko!

 

[ferniesnow]

thanks it really needed it bucko!

I have to say it was definitely time to groom!

When I brought the SnowCat back on Sunday it was soup and way too wet. That's when the SnowCat and the mogul master turn up all those "big snowballs" that eventually freeze and cause night mares.
I couldn't really "groom" anything at all.

I rode Monday and it was still wet as it didn't freeze Sunday night. Monday night it started to cool down; Tuesday may have been okay and night time temps were great.

We chose Wednesday for various reasons and I was able to groom right to the staging area last night on the return run.
The lower section going out was a little soupy or wet but a world of difference on the way back with lower temperatures.

PS when you guys meet a SnowCat on the trail, please stop and let the operator wave you through when it is safe. I have said it before, the mogul master can grab a piece of ice or hard snow under the surface an suddenly veer 4-6' to the side. This is an uncontrollable action when cutting deep hard moguls. Please be aware.

 

[poo88]

I think this trail conditions stuff has been beat to death by now.. So hows the snow conditions?

Sent from a phone likely at work

 

[ferniesnow]

I think this trail conditions stuff has been beat to death by now.. So hows the snow conditions?

Sent from a phone likely at work

Snow and trail are awesome.

 

[toddsphotos]

The coal creek trail was so good that someone was able to drive there truck up to the mathison, and then proceded to get it stuck at the coal creek bridge. To bad they put some good ruts in what was a good trail.

The snow on the other hand is still very fun.

 

[snopro]

The coal creek trail was so good that someone was able to drive there truck up to the mathison, and then roceded to get it stuck at the coal creek bridge. To bad they put some good ruts in what was a good trail.

I hope someone slit his tires. Why,why,why???