Kids love skiing - well, they seem to love snow! (Comstock Complete)

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It's rare to find a ski area that satisfies each member of a family.

Either the ski hill is so gentle or worse, unimaginative, it puts the more aggressive skier to sleep, or the cliffs portend disaster off of every lift, forcing parents to keep children securely tethered to the bunny hill.

Hard-core skiers may be satisfied with falling down after a "fresh tracks" to last run marathon, but most families look for more than just a week's worth of ski run satisfaction.

In a quandary? Consider Sun Peaks Ski Resort outside of Kamloops, B.C., one of, if not the, best family ski resort on the west coast of North America for its geography, attitude and diversity.

GEOGRAPHY

Sun Peaks is at the end of Mt. Tod Road, a serpentine path ascending 33 km after turning off Route 5.

The self-contained village was built on the valley floor beneath Tod, Morrisey and Sundance peaks, the three mountains host 120 named runs.

Unlike many multi-mountain resorts, Sun Peaks makes it easy to hit all three peaks, crafting "the Three Mountain Tour," a self-guided trek that an intermediate skier can do in an afternoon.

And how many mountains invite a wide-eyed four-year-old and his cautious mother to travel to the "Top of the World," and then ease them down a green run, in this case the long cruiser, "5 Mile?"

ATTITUDE

"A great family ski hill includes black runs as much as green runs," declares Nancy Green, director of Sun Peaks Ski Operations and the best ambassador for any ski resort in North America, if not the world.

It is simply amazing to ski with Green, to absorb just a modicum of her enthusiasm is to come away giddy at the opportunity to be a skier. The pointers from Canada's Athlete of the Century are welcome also.

Green skis most days with anyone who meets her at 1 p.m. at the Sunburst mid-mountain lodge.

DIVERSITY

Sun Peaks also offers an outdoor, heated pool, a tube park, ice rink, 50 km of Nordic ski trails, dog-sledding and numerous other recreations.

A non-skier will fill his days with Nordic activities.

Witness my in-laws taking a snowmobile tour a few years ago.

What visitors won't find here is days worth of shopping. The village remains small, with one spa and a few novelty shops purveying little apparel or artwork to take home.