I have skied many resorts in the Rockies. Other places have fancy lodges, high speed lifts and world class apres-ski activities. Fine. Powder King does what it says on the box. I would challenge anyone to show me a resort that I can ski fresh tracks on piste for the first half of the day after a big dump of snow. I'm waiting. The snow here is un matched. People pay big dollars to heli or cat ski in snow that PK's lifts access. The staff here are very friendly and so are the locals. The restaurant serves amazingly good food in generous portions that will satisfy the hunger generated from riding all that fresh powder. The groomers are good during the less snowy days. The terrain park is coming along nicely this year. I have nothing bad to say about this resort. Snow is second to none. If you want to paint the town red after a day of skiing, go to Banff, Jasper, or Whistler. If you want the best snow in the world, look no further.
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We made the pilgrimage to Powder King for a 2 day visit, but didn’t do a lot of skiing. Unfortunately Powder King wasn’t living up to its name and the snow was either crusty or thick due to some drizzle, so the off-piste wasn’t a lot of fun. Powder King certainly has some huge pros as a powder hound ski area – it was just a shame that we didn’t hit it at the right time.

The terrain layout has some cons, and it became rather monotonous to have to travel all the way back down to the base (and sit on the very slow lift) in order to ski many of the lines, and the wider lines were particularly wearisome. Of course, had there been amazing powder, we might not have noticed!

Powder King had a very happy vibe and the staff were super friendly, although some of the visitors there seemed rather strange which provided an interesting cultural experience. The pub got rowdy at lunch time, and there didn’t seem to be a concept of responsible serving of alcohol. A few people were falling off their chair, and the bar tenders just kept on serving them drinks. We just had to hope that they weren’t going back out to ski or snowboard after lunch?!

We stayed in the hostel for one night which was cheap except that we had to pay a lot of money for the use of a pillow, linen and towels. It was pretty noisy and even with ear plugs it was hard to sleep for part of the night. The communal area was very tiny, so everyone just hung out in the corridors. Another limitation was that there was no communal kitchen or even a fridge or microwave, so meal options were limited. There weren’t even cups to get a drink of water.

The nights either side, we stayed at the lovely Ramada Hotel in Prince George, and for not that much more money than the cost of the Powder King hostel, we felt like royalty!

For more on our thoughts, check out the Canada ski resort ratings to see how we compare Powder King to other western Canadian ski resorts.
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