Ski Stop #11 of 42 - Powder King

We had a short drive, 70 km, to get to our next stop - Powder King - on Tse'Khene Territory. A hidden gem of ski resorts in the Pine Pass area. It is right off Highway 97 between Mackenzie and Chetwynd. Powder King has a reputation that it lives up to its name. 1250 cm (41 ft) of annual snowfall helps with that. They refer to it as the Whisper of the North - as in a best-kept secret. A Doppelmayr Triple Chair, T-Bar, and Handle Tow lead to 640 metres (2100 ft) of vertical over 925 acres of wonderful terrain to explore.

Avril Thom-Lucy, who has been an instructor at Powder King for the past three years, joined us for part of the day and showed us some of her favourite runs. The vast majority of the area's 38 runs are named after Beatles' songs - like Paperback Writer, Ticket to Ride, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields ... 

                  

There is no shortage of 80-cm-in-24-hour stories about Powder King. The temp was a wee bit high to get the amazing snow for us - and we flirted with rain for the day we were there. The groomers, however, were fantastic to ski in almost spring-like conditions at the start of February. We took some high-speed laps on a combination of Anytime At All and Let it Be, and then found our best snow over on Nowhere Man.

             

Avril told us about her job application process at Powder King when she first fell in love with the place. You can see and hear that chairlift chatter here:

We didn't have time to stay overnight, but we still did a spin around Powder King's famous Chateau Atco hostel accommodations and got some good stories about it from the staff. The crew working at Powder King seems to have lots of fun. They're a tight bunch - and the Triple Chair crew impressed us with their dancing skills.  

                

Our video recap can be found here: Recap Video Link - #11 - set to a Beatles song of course. It took us a bit to find the right Beatles' tune performed by a Canadian artist that could fit the rhythm of our day- but Bryan Adams came through with Anytime At All. You can check out more of his music at bryanadams.com and our entire Skädi Tour Playlist of Canadian artists on Spotify.

www.powderking.com