SUN PEAKS, B.C. -- You're almost breathless, having just charged through the blazing sunshine down the crunchy dry snow of Headwalls, one of Sun Peaks signature steeps, headlong into the resort's signature aromatherapy, wafting seductively from the midmountain Sunburst Lodge.

		ANDY ROGERS / P-I
	With its signature sunshine, dry snow and cinnamon buns, Sun Peaks is considered by some to be the best ski area in British Columbia.

Shortly you will dive headlong into this sweet cinnamon smell and complete the resort's signature hat trick: sunshine, dry snow and sticky buns.

First you run into this guy with bliss raging across his face whose got the same idea.

"What a great day! My fun meter is in the red," he says, placing his skis in the rack outside the lodge next to your snowboard. "It's too much fun!"

Yes, you agree, that yellow orb is blazing, the snow and steeps are sublime, the smell most appealing.

"This is the best mountain in B.C.," claims the skier, Jeffrey Miller, who, it turns out, is from Everett and likes the place so much he bought property a few miles down Sun Peaks Road.

Wait just a second. This is a province with perhaps the highest concentration of fine ski areas in the galactic empire: Whistler Blackcomb, Fernie, Kicking Horse, Big White, etc. Damn, there are three ski areas just in Vancouver!

How can you say Sun Peaks is the best?

"Dry snow, sunshine, friendly people and 3,000 feet of vertical," Miller says without hesitation.

Sticky buns, too, baked fresh right on the mountain and called cinnamon buns here, they're huge, gooey, delectable, just one of the things that make this place so inviting.

		ANDY ROGERS / P-I
	A skier descends Headwalls, a black-diamond run on Mount Tod. Other "blacks" on Tod's east flank are Sacred Line, Chute and Spillway.

Northeast of Kamloops on the dry side of the province, Sun Peaks projects itself as the low-key, family-friendly alternative to Whistler as a four-season destination resort, with better snow. The second-largest ski area in B.C. at 3,500 acres and change, it is owned by the Japanese firm Nippon Cable Co., which is developing it through a master plan that envisions phasing in serious growth and includes real estate sales as a huge part of the profit scheme.

So far the village is small -- although constantly growing -- the lift lines short, the runs spread over three mountains and often noticeably uncrowded. That could all change as the place expands, but for now, the village pace is altogether less hectic and happening than Whistler's. Sun Peaks does boast wicked steeps and superb gladed tree runs, but it has become known for gentle cruisers -- 68 percent of the runs are rated intermediate or novice.

"You can get the kids anywhere," says Susie Wilkinson of North Vancouver, whom we met at the top of the Crystal Chair with her 10- and 7-year-old children. "It's not a big party, night-life area. It's got great lesson programs, something for everybody."

The resort is crowned by its original mountain, Tod, served by five chairs, topping out at 7,060 feet and still offering its best steeps and powder runs. Looking up from the day lodge at the base area, it's the big hill to your left. On the right is gentle Sundance Mountain, really just a knob, venue for the resort's two terrain parks and laced by almost all blue and green runs.

		ANDY ROGERS / P-I
	Nancy Greene, a two-time Olympic medalist, chats with Marcus Reid, 5, left, Mike Reid, 7, and Christopher Small, 7, at the top of the Sunburst Express lift. She and her husband live and work at Sun Peaks.

Behind you across the main access road is Mount Morrisey, the most recently developed part of the resort, and known for mostly gladed blue and green, with some challenging black-diamond glades on its west flank.

"There's terrain for everybody on all the mountains," says Nancy Greene, the Canadian ski-racing legend who won gold and silver medals in the 1968 Grenoble Olympics and now lives and works at Sun Peaks.

"It now has the reputation as great for families and seniors. But all the old wild side is still there. Tod Mountain used to be known as one of the toughest mountains in Canada. Challenger, Freddie's Nightmare, Roller Coaster, Expo, those still rank as among the greatest runs in North America."

Anyway, Sun Peaks is big, and it will take you three or four days of skiing or riding to get to know it fairly well.

"We'd heard there wasn't enough here for six days, but there's been more than enough," says Sarah Stapleton of the Toronto area, who spent a week at Sun Peaks last month with her husband, Andy. "Yesterday, we were skiing runs we hadn't even seen yet.

Added Andy: "We were finding powder on runs we hadn't seen. It has so many faces."

		ANDY ROGERS / P-I
	Tony Bagg, owner of Bagg's Sweets Cafe, tries to clear ice from in front of his store in the Hearthstone Lodge.

A great way to see many of the resort's smiles, dimples and winks is by taking what's known as the Great White Circle Tour. You can get a map of this huge loop, which links various runs and lifts on the three mountains, at the guest-service desk in the day lodge. The tour takes almost two hours to complete at a total distance of 16.3 miles, and you will descend more than 9,143 thigh-burning feet.

But you won't see any of the resort's grimaces and scowls, because the entire trip is on blue and green runs. Sun Peaks has some pretty sick black-diamond lines and, so I'm told, some dandy stashes you can discover only by plying a friendly local ripper with a pint or several of fine Canadian ale -- I'm talking Granville Island here, not Molson.

The aforementioned racing legend already named the longtime nasties, which are on the lower part of Mount Tod under the old Burfield quad. But there's more. The whole east flank of upper Tod off the Crystal Chair is a zebra of black runs: Headwalls, Sacred Line, Chute, Spillway. On the west side of upper Tod are some daunting lines as well, such as Juniper Ridge, Chief and the real flusher, Toilet Bowl.

The west side of Morrisey offers a fringe of dirty blacks known as the Laundromat: Spin Cycle, Agitator, Static Cling.

"The skier that's really good never gets bored on these mountains," Greene says.

Curiously enough, you can thank, or blame, an insidious insect pest for Sun Peaks' plentitude of glade runs. The pine-bark beetle is killing much of the region's lodgepole pines, and to prevent its spread, the resort has embarked on a campaign to remove infested stands of lodgepole pine.

That has not resulted in huge open clearcut-style runs, but rather narrow glades surrounded by healthy stands of subalpine fir, Douglas fir and spruce.

"Each year we're doing a little more here and there, and we don't advertise it much," mountain operations manager Jamie Tattersfield says. "We take an attitude of letting people discover that on their own. All you have to do is go slightly off trail. It might be a little tight and all of a sudden it will open up and you've got six or eight turns, then its gets tight again and it will open up later."

Don't try that if you're not a pretty good rider or skier.

"I'd recommend, not by yourself but with a buddy, ducking into a place you think might look good," Tattersfield says. "You might be surprised."

I'd advise that you dip in until you're ready to drop. You need to burn some calories to make up for that Canadian jumbo sticky bun.

If you go

Geography: About 30 miles northeast of the central B.C. city of Kamloops. ... With a base area at 4,116 feet and highest lift-served point of 7,007 feet, vertical descent is 2,891 feet. ... In-bounds terrain totals 3,678 acres, second in British Columbia only to Whistler Blackcomb, across three mountains: Tod, Morrisey and Sundance. ... Area boasts 121 runs, two alpine bowls, 12 gladed areas. ... Terrain is rated 32 expert, 58 percent intermediate and 10 percent novice, with longest run five miles.

Infrastructure: Twelve lifts total, including three high-speed quad chairlifts, two standard quads, one triple and six surface lifts. ... Total lift capacity is 12,000 riders per hour. ... Sundance Mountain hosts a terrain park with halfpipe and novice terrain park.

Time: Season typically stretches from late November to mid-April. ... Sundance and Morrisey mountains open at 8:30 a.m.; Tod Mountain opens at 9 a.m. Tod and Morrisey close at 3:30 p.m.; Sundance stays open until 4 p.m. beginning Feb. 1.

Ka-ching: Adult lift tickets are $60 Canadian/ $51 for half-day; $51/$43 for youth 13-18; $45/$38 for seniors 65+ and $33/$28 for kids 6-12.

Travel: Drive time from the Seattle area is about 6.5 hours, typically via the border crossing at Sumas, then follow Highway 1 and the Coquihalla Highway to Kamloops. Horizon Air flies direct from Sea-Tac Airport to Kamloops in about 55 minutes, with shuttle service from there to Sun Peaks. However, when you total the times, it's a wash. It took us about 6.5 hours total each way flying Horizon, largely because of an hour delay on each flight and, on the return trip, an extra hour's wait for our oversize baggage (a snowboard) at Sea-Tac.

Wires: sunpeaksresort.com and 800-807-3257