Love Crans-Montana? Where to go next for the sun, the height or the soft reds
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20268 min read
Crans-Montana is a resort people choose for the light. Sunshine comes first on our list of what it does best, ahead of golf and spa and families, and our one line on it is a sunny plateau with wide views over the Rhône. We read it as sunny and smart, and we tag it for families.
Under the view, the measurements find two quieter strengths: most of the skiing sits high, and the reds are among the gentlest we measure. So "somewhere like Crans-Montana" means different things to different people: the sun and an easy family week, snow you can count on, or reds a nervous skier can enjoy. Each route here keeps one of those and pays for it with something else.
Crans-Montana, measured
Height is the headline. Seventy nine percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, and the skiing reaches 2,868 metres by our measurement, so on our measure Crans-Montana is snow sure. Half the piste sits above 2,010 metres, and the lowest run we measure finishes at 1,463, just under the village. Nobody can promise snow, but little of a week here depends on the bottom of the mountain.
The size is honest, too: 140 kilometres in one linked area, a figure three independent sources agree on to the kilometre. Our own count of the graded piste around the village is tighter, at 85. Plan the week on that.
Then there is the piste map, which undersells the place. Fifty nine percent of what we measure is red, and the blue and easier runs come to 22 kilometres: only four of the 55 resorts we cover have less. Read that alone and you would send a nervous skier somewhere else. The gradients disagree. Crans-Montana's reds average 19.2 percent, under the 19.9 of a typical Swiss red, and only five of the 55 resorts we cover have gentler reds. Its blues average 13.3 percent, against a Swiss 15.0. Those are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, but the shape is plain: 36 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, and only 22 percent is steeper than one in four.
At the hard end there are 12.9 kilometres of black, averaging 27.1 percent against a Swiss 26.7, and the longest run we measure is a 4 kilometre black with 843 metres of vertical. A strong skier will have good days rather than a hard week.
So the next resort has an odd brief: high, sunny, kind to a family, with reds that do the work blues do elsewhere. Nothing we cover does all of it.
Arosa: if it is the sun and the family week, with more easy skiing
- VillageVillage
- 1,800 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,653 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 225 km
Arosa: 183 km of piste we measure. 97 km blue and easier 53%72 km red 39%15 km black 8%
Plus 9 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
Arosa shares two of the three things on Crans-Montana's list, sunshine and families, and no other resort we cover shares more than one. Our read of it is gentle and sunny, a bowl linked to Lenzerheide, and snow sure is on its list too.
It fixes the thing a family notices first. Arosa has 96.6 kilometres of blue and easier piste, more than four times Crans-Montana's 22 and the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. Around the village we measure 183 kilometres in all, more than twice your 85, and the linked area with Lenzerheide is 225 kilometres against 140, joined by one cable car and agreed exactly by three sources.
The height comes with it. The village sits at 1,800 metres, 300 above yours, and the skiing reaches 2,848 metres by our measurement, only 20 lower. Sixty five percent of its piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 79, so on our measure it is snow sure as well.
The trade is those soft reds. Arosa's reds average 21.8 percent, against your 19.2 and steeper than a typical Swiss red, and its blacks, at 32.4, are the steepest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. Twenty four percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, close to your 22, so it is the reds that ask more, not the mountain. Golf and spa are not on its list, and the airport is Zurich.
Méribel: if it is the height, on a far bigger mountain
- VillageVillage
- 1,450 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,952 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 600 km quoted
Méribel: 261 km of piste we measure. 156 km green and blue 60%75 km red 29%30 km black 11%
If the part you love is skiing high every day, Méribel keeps the height and adds a great deal of mountain. It is the friendly middle of the Three Valleys, pretty and friendly by our read, with families first on its list and a Geneva flight, like yours.
The height is close to a match. The village is at 1,450 metres, 50 below Crans-Montana's, and the skiing reaches 2,891 metres by our measurement, 23 higher. Seventy eight percent of its piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 79, and on our measure it is snow sure.
Everything else grows. We measure 261 kilometres of piste around Méribel, the second most of the 55 resorts we cover and about three times your 85, and the Three Valleys is quoted at 600, a figure we have not measured ourselves. There are 156 kilometres of green and blue, again the second most of the 55 we cover, against your 22 of blue and easier, and 29.9 kilometres of black, the third most of the 55 we cover.
The trade is the gentle gradient, and the sun on the label. Méribel's reds average 25.4 percent against your 19.2, and 31 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 22. French and Swiss grades are not set the same way (a typical French red averages 24.3 percent, a Swiss one 19.9), so compare the measured shares rather than the colours. Sunshine is not on Méribel's list, and the improver who loved your reds will find these a real step up.
Alta Badia: if it is the family week and the long lunch, in Italy
- VillageVillage
- 1,568 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,778 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 500 km about, our sum
Alta Badia: 125 km of piste we measure. 76 km blue and easier 61%41 km red 33%8 km black 6%
Of every resort we cover, our matching puts Alta Badia closest to Crans-Montana. The village is at 1,568 metres, 68 above yours, and both are family resorts on our tags. Our read of it is warm and welcoming, gentle Dolomite cruising with world class mountain food.
It has the easy skiing Crans-Montana lacks. There are 76 kilometres of blue and easier piste, 61 percent of what we measure and the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. Forty percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, the joint fourth largest share of the 55 we cover, and only 15 percent is steeper than one in four.
It goes further, too. Alta Badia's own sector is 130 kilometres, and from a base on the Sellaronda around 500 is reachable by lift without a bus, our own rough sum of measured kilometres rather than a published figure. The 1,200 on the Dolomiti Superski pass covers twelve areas, only four of them joined.
The trade is the top. The skiing reaches 2,509 metres by our measurement, 359 below yours, and 65 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 79. That is still snow sure on our measure, with less in hand. And there are 7.5 kilometres of black against 12.9.
Klosters: if it is the soft reds, somewhere quieter
- VillageVillage
- 1,191 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,844 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 96 km
Klosters: 97 km of piste we measure. 24 km blue and easier 24%62 km red 64%12 km black 12%
Plus 7 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
This is for the reader who has noticed what Crans-Montana's map hides, because Klosters is built the same way: a map that looks red and skis gentle. It has 24 kilometres of blue and easier, against your 22, but its reds average 17.1 percent and its blacks 21.1, the gentlest reds and the gentlest blacks of the 55 resorts we cover. Thirty eight percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against your 36, and only 15 percent is steeper than one in four.
It keeps the snow. The skiing reaches 2,808 metres by our measurement, 60 below yours, and 69 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, so on our measure Klosters is snow sure. Our read of it is discreet and pretty, the quiet neighbour to Davos, and we tag it upmarket, quiet and good for families.
The trade is village height and the single linked mountain. Klosters sits at 1,191 metres, 309 below Crans-Montana. Its main skiing is the Parsenn, reached by the Gotschna cable car and shared with Davos, and otherwise there is Madrisa. The Davos Klosters pass is sold as 300 kilometres, measured at 224, across six separate mountains, most of them a train, bus or car apart. Around the village we measure 97 kilometres. Sunshine is not on its list; discretion is.
So, which one
you want Crans-Montana's sun, height and family feel with far more easy skiing for the children.
the height is the point, you want a much bigger mountain, and your group takes steeper reds in its stride.
easy skiing and long lunches matter more than the top of the mountain, and nobody in the group needs much black.
it is the gentle reds and the snow you love, and quiet suits you better than sun.
It keeps the sun, the family feel and the snow, puts the village 300 metres higher and gives you more than four times the blue and easier piste. What you give up is the softest of the reds, and golf and spa. For most families that is a fair trade.