Adelboden or Wengen: a chalet village or a car free one?

Size: Wengen has a little more, and neither is as big as its pass

Adelboden's pass covers 188 kilometres, across five sectors that are not all joined. From the village you can ski 85 without transport, Lenk included, since it is linked by lift. We measure 115 kilometres of piste around Adelboden, which reaches beyond that linked area, so plan the week on the 85.

Wengen's own sector is 101 kilometres, shared with Grindelwald. The Jungfrau pass says 211, but 54 of those are Mürren and the Schilthorn, which Wengen does not reach by lift. We measure 125 kilometres around Wengen, about 11 more than around Adelboden.

So Wengen is a little bigger on both counts: 101 against 85 on the lifts from the village, 125 against 115 on our measure. It is not a big gap, and for most families either is a full week.

Altitude: close on both counts, and the snow figures need care

Adelboden's village is at 1,350 metres, 76 above Wengen's 1,274. At the top, Adelboden's skiing reaches 2,356 metres by our measurement, and Wengen's top lift is at 2,320. Those are different measures, so read them as close rather than as a precise gap.

On our measure Adelboden is not snow sure: 55 percent of its piste is at or above 1,800 metres, but the skiing stops at 2,356, short of the 2,500 our test asks for. Wengen we are not calling either way. Of the piste we map there, 66 percent is at or above 1,800 metres and 14 percent above 2,200, against 3 percent at Adelboden, but the Jungfraujoch muddies those figures by an amount we cannot yet say. Nobody can promise snow at either, and at both the heart of the season is the safer booking.

The skiing: the same gentle middle, a very different black

Both grade the Swiss way, so here the colours compare fairly. The easy end is a draw: 52 kilometres of blue and easier at Adelboden, 51 at Wengen. Thirty nine percent of Wengen's piste is gentler than 15 percent, the joint seventh largest share of the 55 resorts we cover, and 38 percent of Adelboden's, the joint fourth largest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. For a family's first days, there is nothing in it.

Who each one actually suits

Adelboden suits families who want a traditional chalet village with some warmth to it. Tradition, families and the World Cup make up its list of what it does best, and Lenk is on the same lifts. It also suits a confident parent who wants a little more steep in the week than Wengen gives.

Wengen suits families who want the village itself to be calm. It is car free and quiet, and no cars, the scenery and families make up its list of what it does best. That is the right list for parents who want children walking about without traffic. On the mountain it suits a confident intermediate who is ready for black, because there is a lot of it.

The bit nobody tells you

Wengen has more black. Adelboden has the steeper piste. Twenty five percent of Adelboden's piste is steeper than one in four, the joint third largest share of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against 20 percent at Wengen. Adelboden is steeper on average at every grade, too: blues 14.5 percent against 13.9, reds 21.3 against 20.1, and blacks 26.1 against 24.3. Only three of the 55 resorts we cover have gentler blacks than Wengen's.

These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so read them as the feel of the week rather than a verdict on any one run. But the message is clear. Black kilometres tell you how much there is, not how hard it is. A strong skier counting steep ground will find Adelboden the stiffer week, even with less black. An intermediate who has never tried a black will find few of the resorts we cover kinder than Wengen to start on, and 20 kilometres to work through once they have.