Love Courmayeur? Where to go next for the off piste, the long lunch or the polish

Engelberg is the closest match to Courmayeur we measure, anywhere, and it is the one to choose if the off piste is why you book. It sits near Lucerne under the Titlis glacier, with big vertical and serious freeride, and we class both resorts as expert. Its reputation rests on descents like the Laub, which, like Courmayeur's guided glacier days, sit outside every piste figure on this page.

On the piste the two are uncannily close. We measure 46 kilometres around Engelberg against Courmayeur's 42, and 31 percent of it is steeper than one in four, against 32. Its reds average 24.0 percent, the steepest reds of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against Courmayeur's 24.3. Grade labels do not travel across borders, but here the measured gradients agree: a red is a red in both places.

The skiing goes higher, to 3,004 metres, measured, against Courmayeur's 2,715, and the season runs on into May. The village is lower, at 1,000 metres, 224 below Courmayeur's, and only 53 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against 72. The high top still makes it snow sure on our test. The published figure for the Titlis side is 70 kilometres, and Brunni faces it from the other side of the valley, joined by a free ski bus, not a lift.

The trade is the style. Engelberg is down to earth and snowy, and we do not class it as upmarket. Go for the mountain and the guide, and do not go looking for the Via Roma.

If it is the Italian half you love, the style, the aperitivo and a lunch that takes the afternoon, stay in Italy and head east to the Dolomites. Cortina d'Ampezzo is stylish and scenic, long lunches are on the list of what it does best, and we class both resorts as upmarket. Its village sits at 1,224 metres, exactly Courmayeur's height.

Above the village, almost everything gets bigger. Cortina's lifts reach 3,028 metres, measured, 313 above Courmayeur's top, though the highest piste we measure there is at 2,724 metres, only nine above Courmayeur's 2,715. Sixty seven percent of Cortina's piste is at or above 1,800 metres and that piste top clears our 2,500 metre line, so it is snow sure on our test. We measure 86 kilometres of piste around the town, twice Courmayeur's 42, with 38 kilometres of blue and easier against 16. And it is gentler: 25 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 32, and the reds average 21.9 percent against 24.3. For a mixed group, that is the difference between lapping the same few runs and having somewhere new to go each day.

The trade is the off piste, and Mont Blanc. On marked itinerary Cortina actually has more, 9 kilometres against 3.3, but Courmayeur's off piste is the big guided terrain under the massif, and we class Courmayeur as expert and Cortina not. The blacks are a little less steep, 32.5 percent on average against 36.4, though there are more of them, 9 kilometres against 4.6.

Zürs is the route that keeps both halves of Courmayeur's character, the polish and the appetite for off piste. It is a tiny, exclusive corner of the Arlberg, quiet and upmarket, and it has 40 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, the fourth most of the 55 resorts we cover, against Courmayeur's 3.3. The village is high, at 1,720 metres, 496 above Courmayeur's, and 74 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres.

The piste will feel familiar. We measure 75 kilometres around Zürs against Courmayeur's 42, with 33 percent of it steeper than one in four against 32, and its reds average 24.2 percent against 24.3. Austrian and Italian grades do not usually line up, which makes that match worth knowing. The Arlberg as a whole reaches further, but its size is not yet classified in our data, so we compare on what we measure around the village.

The trade is the town and the top. Zürs is a tiny, quiet village, so the evening stroll down the Via Roma does not come with you, and its skiing tops out at 2,440 metres, measured, 275 below Courmayeur's. And you give up Italy, with everything that means at lunchtime.