Love Argentière? Where to go next for the steep, the freeride or the quiet
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20268 min read
Argentière is the serious skier's corner of the Chamonix valley, and the people who love it know exactly why. It is low key and serious by our read, and the three things it does best are experts, off piste and a quiet base.
The numbers explain the loyalty: the steepest piste of the 55 resorts we cover, measured from the gradient, skiing to a measured 3,222 metres and a season into May. Nothing else we measure is this steep, so the useful question is which part you would keep, and what you would take in exchange.
Argentière, measured
Start with the steep. Fifty nine percent of the piste we measure around Argentière is steeper than one in four, the biggest share of the 55 resorts we cover, and more than twice the median. The other end is the mirror image: only 17 percent is gentler than 15 percent, and only one resort we cover has less.
The gradients agree, colour by colour. Argentière's blues average 18.4 percent, the steepest of the 17 French resorts we cover, where a typical French blue is 16.2. Its reds average 28.9 percent, the second steepest of the 55 resorts we cover and within a point of a typical French black at 29.6. Those are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so read them as how the week feels. It feels steep.
Then the shape. The piste splits almost exactly into thirds, 30 percent green or blue, 37 red and 33 black, the most even split of the 55 resorts we cover. A third black sounds like a great deal of black. It is 14.7 kilometres, a touch above the 14.1 at the median resort we cover, because the whole is small: only one resort we cover has less piste than the 44 kilometres we measure here. Its longest, the Pierre à Ric, is just 2 kilometres, a red with 515 metres of drop. On top sit 9 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary.
The other half of the appeal is height. From the lowest piste we measure to the top is 2,163 metres of vertical, and 83 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 3,222, with half of it above 2,025. On our measure that makes Argentière snow sure, though nobody can promise snow.
So "somewhere like Argentière" asks for four things at once: steep, serious, high and quiet. No resort we cover keeps all four, and each route here charges you for what it drops.
St Anton: if it is the steep and the off piste, and more of both
- VillageVillage
- 1,304 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,811 m
St. Anton: 155 km of piste we measure. 66 km blue and easier 42%65 km red 42%24 km black 15%
Plus 70 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
If you go to Argentière for the hardest skiing you can find, St Anton is as near as anything we measure, and there is far more of it. Forty three percent of St Anton's piste is steeper than one in four, the joint second biggest share of the 55 resorts we cover, behind only Argentière. Its reds average 25.8 percent, the sixth steepest of the 55 we cover, and its blacks 34.1 percent, steeper than your 31.8. Grades are set differently in each country, so compare the measured shares, not the colours.
Then the size. We measure 155 kilometres of piste around St Anton, more than three times Argentière's 44, with 24 kilometres of black against your 14.7. And it has 70 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, the most of any resort we cover, against your 9. We have not classified the size of the wider Arlberg, so the comparison is on what we measure ourselves.
The height is close enough. The village sits at 1,304 metres, 52 above yours, and the skiing reaches 2,799 by our measurement, 423 metres short of your top. With 71 percent of the piste at or above 1,800 metres, against your 83, St Anton is snow sure on our measure too. The season ends in April rather than May.
The trade is the quiet. St Anton is energetic and social, the lively heart of the Arlberg, with nightlife on its list of what it does best. You fly to Innsbruck or Zurich rather than Geneva.
Engelberg: if it is the vertical and the freeride, in Switzerland
- VillageVillage
- 1,000 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 3,028 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 70 km
Engelberg: 46 km of piste we measure. 20 km green and blue 43%22 km red 48%4.5 km black 10%
Engelberg is close to Argentière in kind. Big vertical and serious freeride near Lucerne is how we sum it up, with off piste, a glacier and freeride on its list, and like Argentière we class it as expert. It even keeps your season, December to May.
It is small on the piste map in the same way. We measure 46 kilometres around Engelberg, barely more than your 44. Its own area, Titlis, is 70 kilometres; Brunni, across the valley, is a free ski bus away. The family resemblance is the vertical: from the lowest piste we measure to the highest is 1,997 metres here, against 2,163 at Argentière. The skiing reaches 3,004 metres by our measurement, 218 below your top.
The freeride is the point, and our figures cannot see it. Engelberg's marked itinerary comes to 1.8 kilometres in our data, against your 9, but its real draw is the Laub and Steintaeli freeride descents, which none of our piste figures count. Judge Engelberg on the 46 kilometres alone and you undersell it badly.
On the piste it is steep for Switzerland, if not for Argentière. Thirty one percent is steeper than one in four, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against your 59. Its reds average 24.0 percent, also the steepest of the Swiss resorts we cover, against a typical Swiss red at 19.9. There is very little black, 4.5 kilometres against your 14.7.
The other trade is the village. It sits at 1,000 metres, 252 below yours, and only 53 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 83. With the skiing reaching above 3,000, that is just enough to make it snow sure on our measure. We read it as down to earth and snowy rather than quiet. You fly to Zurich.
On our numbers, the closest match to Argentière anywhere is in Italy. Bormio keeps three things: a village at almost the same height, 1,225 metres against your 1,252; a mountain of about the same size, with 52.5 kilometres of piste measured around it against your 44; and the quiet. It is a historic spa town with a famous top to bottom run, relaxed by our read, with long runs, a thermal spa and racing on its list.
The height carries over too. The skiing reaches 3,001 metres by our measurement, 221 below yours, and 76 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800, so Bormio is snow sure on our measure.
Like Argentière, it is no place to learn. We measure 12.1 kilometres of blue and easier, the least of the 55 resorts we cover and a little under your 13.4. And it has steep moments: 32 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, and its blacks average 35.7 percent, the sixth steepest of the 55 we cover and steeper than yours at 31.8.
The trade is how much hard skiing there is. Sixty eight percent of Bormio's piste is red, and there are 4.7 kilometres of black against your 14.7. Its own mountain is 50 kilometres, and the wider pass covers four separate valleys that need transport between them. The season ends in April, and you fly to Bergamo or Milan.
So, which one
the steep and the off piste are the point, you want far more of both, and a lively village does not put you off.
you want the off piste and the quiet together, and can do with a lot less black.
you want another small, serious mountain with a big vertical and a season into May, and the freeride matters more than the piste.
it is the quiet, the height and a mountain of about the same size that you love, and you can live with much less black.
Nowhere we cover matches Argentière's steepness, and St Anton comes as close as any while giving an expert more of everything else: more than three times the piste, more black, and more marked off piste than any resort we cover. What you give up is the quiet, and May.