Cortina d'Ampezzo or Klosters: the same shape, a different gradient

Size: Klosters has a little more, and neither is all joined up

We measure 97 kilometres of piste around Klosters and 86 around Cortina, about 11 more at Klosters. Neither number is a ski area in the usual sense, because neither resort gives you one linked mountain.

From Klosters, the Gotschna cable car takes you up to the Parsenn, the one big mountain shared with Davos, at 95.5 kilometres. Madrisa is Klosters's other mountain, and it stands on its own. Davos's other mountains are a train, bus or car ride away. Officially the pass adds up to 300 kilometres; measured across the same ten lift areas it comes to 224, and no single door reaches all of them.

Cortina is the same story in Italian: Tofana on one flank of the valley, Faloria and Cristallo facing it, and the bus or the car to get from one to the other. The Dolomiti Superski pass covers far more besides, but the lifts do not join it up. If the bus is the thing you dread, neither of these will fix it.

Altitude: level at the village, level on the snow

Cortina's village is at 1,224 metres and Klosters's at 1,191. Cortina's skiing reaches 3,028 metres by our measure, 220 above Klosters's 2,808, but that top is a lift station. The highest piste we measure at Cortina starts at 2,724, so on the runs themselves Klosters goes 84 metres higher.

Both count as snow sure on our measure. At Cortina, 67 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 3,028 at the top of the lifts, with the highest piste we measure at 2,724. At Klosters it is 69 percent, up to 2,808. Just over half of each sits above 2,000 metres. Nobody can promise snow, and on these figures there is nothing to choose. The one caveat is that Klosters's lowest piste reaches down to 988 metres, lower than anything at Cortina, and low runs are the first to suffer in a thin spell.

The skiing: Klosters is gentle, Cortina has an edge

This is where the decision is made. Every gradient here is an average per run segment, and the colour on the map follows a run's steepest pitch, so think of these as the texture of a week rather than a ruling on any particular run. On that measure, the two are a long way apart.

Who each one actually suits

Klosters suits people who want quiet. Our one line calls it the quiet, pretty neighbour to Davos; we class it as upmarket, quiet and good for families, and those words are worth taking at face value. For a couple or a family of confident intermediates who want long, easy reds and a quiet base, and who like having Davos's mountains on the same pass, it is very hard to beat.

Cortina suits people who want the holiday to have a town in it. The Corso Italia, an aperitivo as the lifts close and the passeggiata before dinner are as much a part of the week as the skiing, and lunch in a rifugio can run all afternoon. It works for couples, for families with grandparents along and for anyone with a non skier in the party. Beginners have the gentle Socrepes slopes, and anyone wanting a test has Tofana's sweeping reds and the steeper blacks.

The bit nobody tells you

At Klosters, a blue is barely easier than a red. Its blues average 15.9 percent and its reds 17.1, only 1.2 points apart. At Cortina the gap is 6.6 points: blues at 15.3, reds at 21.9.

That cuts both ways. For an improver who is ready to move up, Klosters is a kind place to do it, because the first red will feel much like the last blue. For someone still finding their feet, it is a catch: Klosters's blues are steeper on average than Cortina's, the fourth steepest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, and there are fewer of them. The true beginner is better off in Cortina.