Arosa or Méribel: the higher village, or the higher skiing

Altitude: Arosa is higher at the door, Méribel higher on the piste

Arosa's village sits at 1,800 metres, the second highest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. Méribel Centre is at 1,450. Mottaret, higher up the valley at 1,750 metres, closes most of that gap if height at the door matters to you.

On the mountain the order flips. Seventy eight percent of the piste we measure around Méribel is at or above 1,800 metres, against 65 percent at Arosa. More than half of Méribel's piste is above 2,000 metres; at Arosa it is 38 percent. The tops are almost level, 2,891 metres at Méribel by our measure and 2,848 at Arosa. Méribel simply has more of its skiing up high, in the open bowls that climb towards Val Thorens.

Both are snow sure on our measure. At Méribel, 78 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,891 metres. At Arosa, 65 percent, up to 2,848. Nobody can promise snow. If you are going early or late, Méribel has more of its skiing well clear of the line.

Size: Méribel is in a bigger league

The Three Valleys is quoted at 600 kilometres and is genuinely linked, though we have not measured it ourselves. Arosa Lenzerheide is 225 kilometres, two valleys joined by one cable car, a figure three sources agree on exactly.

Our own measurement around each village tells the same story at a smaller scale: 261 kilometres of piste around Méribel, the second most of the 55 resorts we cover, against 183 around Arosa, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. That is about 78 kilometres more. Méribel also sits in the middle of its area, with Courchevel over one ridge and Val Thorens up the other, so a strong group can go somewhere new every day.

Arosa's 183 is not small. For a family week it is plenty. But if your group judges a holiday by how far it can roam, Méribel is the answer.

The skiing: Arosa is gentler, Méribel has more at both ends

On the shares, Arosa is the gentler mountain. Twenty four percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 31 at Méribel and 26 at a typical resort we cover. Méribel's share is the fifth biggest of the 17 French resorts we cover. Thirty five percent of Arosa's piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 32.

Who each one actually suits

Méribel suits families first, and mixed groups where nobody wants to be short changed. It was planned around chalets in timber and stone, so it looks like somewhere you would want to spend a week. Children learn on wide greens among the trees at the Altiport, the catered chalet is a tradition here, and the leisure centre, with a pool and an ice rink, rescues a flat light afternoon. The après starts at the bars at the bottom of the runs and is lively without getting messy. Strong skiers can head for Courchevel or Val Thorens and be back for dinner.

Arosa suits families too, and people who want sunshine and a resort that is snow sure on our measure, in Switzerland. Our read on it is gentle and sunny. It suits a family whose least confident member wants a mountain where less of the piste is steep, a group flying to Zurich, and a strong skier who would rather have marked off piste itinerary than more black run.

The bit nobody tells you

Méribel's name is for friendly family skiing, and that holds, but its reds are not soft. Measured from the gradient, they average 25.4 percent, the fifth steepest of the 17 French resorts we cover and above the French average of 24.3. Its longest, the Combe du Vallon, is a red of 3.1 kilometres with 947 metres of vertical. Arosa's reds average 21.8 percent, against a Swiss average of 19.9.

These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so treat them as the feel of the week rather than a verdict on any one run. Grades are set country by country, too, so a red is not a fixed thing. But for a family whose intermediates are newly on red, that is what they will feel: Méribel's reds will ask more of them than Arosa's.