Cortina d'Ampezzo or Laax: Italian style, or more of the mountain

Size: Laax gives you more, and joins it all up

Laax's skiing, Flims Laax Falera, adds up to 176 kilometres of piste, all of it linked. You may see 216 quoted; that adds 40 kilometres of ski route. Neither is wrong, they simply count different things. Measured from the run geometry ourselves, we make it 124 kilometres around Laax, against 86 around Cortina, about 39 more.

Cortina hands you several sectors rather than one: Tofana on its side of the town, Faloria and Cristallo opposite, with a ski bus or a car to cross between them. The Dolomiti Superski pass covers a great deal more, but not by lift from your door. If your group measures a week in kilometres and dislikes a bus timetable, Laax wins this section outright.

The easy end grows too. Laax has 57 kilometres of blue and easier piste, about 19 more than Cortina's 38, in nearly the same share of the total.

Altitude: Cortina sits higher, Laax skis higher

Cortina's village is at 1,224 metres, 124 above Laax's 1,100, and the top of its lifts is 60 metres higher too. On the piste, though, Laax is higher: the highest piste we measure starts at 2,965 metres there, against 2,724 at Cortina. On the figures that describe the snow, Laax comes out ahead as well.

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 Laax it is 72 percent, up to 2,968. Half of Laax's piste is above 2,127 metres, against 2,019 at Cortina. Nobody can promise snow, but Laax has more of its skiing well up the hill.

The skiing: Cortina has the bite, Laax the breadth

A word on the gradients first: they are averages over each run segment, and a piste earns its colour from its steepest pitch, so they show the general character of a mountain rather than how any one run skis. On that measure, Cortina is clearly the steeper of the two. A quarter of its piste is steeper than one in four, close to the 26 percent at a typical resort we cover. At Laax it is 14 percent, a smaller share than at all but two of the 55 resorts we cover. Cortina's blacks average 32.5 percent; Laax's 25.5. Cortina's reds average 21.9, against 19.5 at Laax.

Who each one actually suits

Laax suits people who want a modern mountain and plenty of it. Our read on it is modern and youthful, upmarket, design led, and a freestyle mecca, with snowboarding high on its list of strengths. It also suits mixed groups of skiers better than its youthful billing might suggest: lots of easy piste, all of it joined up, and a generous helping of marked itinerary for the strong ones. What it is not, on our read, is an old town with a long lunch at its heart.

Cortina is exactly that. Evenings go from an aperitivo on the Corso Italia into the passeggiata, the slow walk before dinner, and a rifugio lunch can take most of the afternoon. It is a natural fit for couples, for several generations travelling together and for anyone with a non skier in tow. Beginners start on the gentle Socrepes slopes, and strong skiers have Tofana's women's downhill pistes and the steeper blacks.

The bit nobody tells you

Cortina's top looks the higher, 3,028 metres against 2,968. But that 3,028 is where a lift arrives; no piste we measure there begins above 2,724 metres. At Laax the highest piste starts at 2,965, within a few metres of the height of its top lift.

So on the snow you actually ski, Laax goes 241 metres higher, and the rest of the mountain follows: 60 percent of Laax's piste is above 2,000 metres, against 52 at Cortina. If you were choosing Cortina for the height, know that its advantage lives in a lift station rather than on the runs.