Arosa or La Plagne: two family resorts at the same height, measured

Size: close around the village, not close across the link

Both areas are genuinely linked. Arosa joins Lenzerheide by a single cable car into one domain of 225 kilometres, and three sources agree on that figure. Paradiski joins La Plagne to Les Arcs by the Vanoise Express, for 425 kilometres, a figure we have checked against our own measurement. That is 200 kilometres more on the pass.

Around the villages themselves the gap is much smaller. We measure 202.5 kilometres of piste around La Plagne, the fifth most of the 55 resorts we cover, and 183 around Arosa, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. That is 19.5 kilometres between them.

So for a family that skis from the door and comes back for lunch, the two are near enough level. The difference shows up for the stronger members of the group, who can spend a day crossing to Les Arcs and back from La Plagne. Arosa has Lenzerheide across its cable car, but the whole of Arosa Lenzerheide is a little over half the size of Paradiski.

Altitude: the same at the door, La Plagne higher on the hill

On paper the villages are level, both at 1,800 metres. La Plagne's figure is one number for a resort that is really ten villages: the high purpose built centres sit up in the snow, and the traditional villages such as Montchavin, Les Coches and Montalbert are lower, down in the trees. Book one of the high centres if altitude at the door is what you are after.

On the hill, La Plagne goes higher. The top of the skiing we measure there is 3,022 metres, with the Bellecôte glacier at the top of the area, against 2,848 at Arosa: 174 metres in La Plagne's favour. More of its piste sits high, too. Eighty percent of La Plagne's piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against 65 percent at Arosa, and over half of it is above 2,000 metres, where at Arosa it is 38 percent.

Both are snow sure on our measure. At La Plagne, 80 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 3,022 metres. At Arosa it is 65 percent, up to 2,848. Nobody can promise snow, but if you are booking early or late in the season, La Plagne has more of its skiing well clear of that line.

The skiing: La Plagne has more at both ends

For a family, the easy end is what counts, and La Plagne has more of it. It has 128 kilometres of green and blue, the fifth most of the 55 resorts we cover, against 97 kilometres of blue and easier at Arosa. Thirty nine percent of La Plagne's piste is gentler than 15 percent, the third biggest share of the 17 French resorts we cover. At Arosa it is 35 percent. Both have about a quarter of their piste steeper than one in four, 27 percent at La Plagne and 24 at Arosa, against 26 at a typical resort we cover.

Who each one actually suits

La Plagne suits families first, and beginners, and anyone who wants a big week that is easy to say yes to. The high bowls above the centres are wide, sunny and gentle, the kind of slopes where a nervous beginner gets real mileage instead of laps of a nursery field. The high centres put you on the snow from the door; the lower villages trade that for old farm buildings, village squares and tree runs for a snowy day. The evenings are relaxed and sociable rather than wild, with the most going on in Plagne Centre and Belle Plagne. For a day off, there is the Olympic bobsleigh run, which children talk about for the rest of the week.

Arosa suits families too, and people who want sunshine and a snow sure resort, in Switzerland. Our read on it is gentle and sunny. It suits a family flying to Zurich, a group who want one linked area on a manageable scale, and a strong skier in the party who would rather have marked off piste itinerary than more black run.

The bit nobody tells you

La Plagne's black runs are not as black as their number suggests. Measured from the gradient, they average 25.5 percent, 15th of the 17 French resorts we cover on steepness and close to the French average for a red, 24.3. Arosa's blacks average 32.4 percent, the steepest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover.

These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so treat them as a feel for the week rather than a verdict on any one run. The average is for runs graded black, so La Plagne's 6.5 kilometres of double black sit outside it. Even so, the message is clear. A strong skier will find Arosa's fewer blacks the stiffer test. An improver who wants to tick off a first black run will find La Plagne the kinder place to try it, and there are a lot of them to choose from.