Châtel or Les Gets: one lift pass, two doorsteps

The area: one circuit, two doors into it

Every figure for the Portes du Soleil is large, and they do not agree. It is 600 kilometres officially and 580 measured, and one independent measurement puts it nearer 426. Whichever you go by, it is a very big linked area, and it is the same one from either village.

What differs is the corner you start in. Châtel is on the Swiss border, and its own sector, the Espace Liberté, is 120 kilometres, shared with Torgon and Morgins. Les Gets is at the gateway to the circuit, and its own sector, shared with Morzine, is 117. On paper the two home sectors are level.

Closer in, they are not. We measure 99 kilometres of piste around Les Gets against 82 around Châtel, 17.6 more, though both are short of the 116 at the median resort we cover. On a day when the youngest skier wants to stay close to the village, Les Gets gives you more to choose from.

Altitude: level in the village, Châtel higher on the hill

The villages are 28 metres apart, Châtel at 1,200 and Les Gets at 1,172. Up the hill they part company. The skiing we measure at Châtel tops out at 2,084 metres. At Les Gets it stops at 1,965, the lowest top of the 17 French resorts we cover and 119 metres below Châtel's.

The spread of the piste says more than the tops. At Châtel, 23 percent of it is at or above 1,800 metres and 77 percent is above 1,500, and half of it lies above 1,661 metres. At Les Gets, 1 percent is at or above 1,800, the second smallest share of the 55 resorts we cover, and 40 percent is above 1,500. Half of it lies below 1,463.

Neither is snow sure on our measure, which asks for more than half the piste at or above 1,800 metres and skiing that reaches 2,500. Both are low resorts. But if a thin winter is the worry, this is the gap between them that matters, and it runs Châtel's way.

The skiing: much the same mountain, and more of it at Les Gets

Measured from the gradient, the two mountains feel much the same. Les Gets's blues average 15.0 percent and Châtel's 15.6, against a typical French blue at 16.2. Its reds average 23.2 against Châtel's 24.3, which is the same as a typical French red. Twenty three percent of Les Gets's piste is steeper than one in four and 26 percent of Châtel's, and the gentle shares are 34 and 35 percent. Our terrain scores have the two level for every kind of skier.

Who each one actually suits

Châtel suits families who want value and a rustic village. Value, tradition and families are the three things it does best by our read, and our one line on it is farm village character on the Swiss border. Its mountain is a typical French one, and its own skiing sits higher than Les Gets's, which matters in a lean year. A strong skier will find little black at home and spend the week out on the circuit.

Les Gets suits families who want a pretty village with more skiing at the door. It is warm and traditional by our read, and families, tree skiing and a charming village are its list. Trees are worth having on a grey day with children in the group. It has more of every grade than Châtel, and a confident skier gets more black, and steeper black, close to the village.

The bit nobody tells you

The gentler of the two family villages has the steeper blacks. Les Gets's blues and reds measure a touch kinder than Châtel's, but its blacks average 33.2 percent, the third steepest of the 17 French resorts we cover, against 29.2 at Châtel and 29.6 for a typical French black.

These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so read them as a feel for the week rather than a verdict on any one run. But they mean a teenager who has just moved onto black will find Châtel's the easier place to try it, and the strong skier in the group will find Les Gets's blacks worth the trip.