Davos or Klosters: one mountain, two very different bases

Size: Davos has more around it, Klosters has the same big mountain

Davos has 145 kilometres of piste around the town by our measure, the third most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. It comes in pieces. The Parsenn is reached from Davos Dorf by the Parsenn railway. The Jakobshorn rises straight out of Davos Platz. Rinerhorn and Pischa are separate again. That is a lot of variety, and it means a bus or the train some mornings.

Klosters has 97 kilometres around it, and for most people the draw is the Parsenn, which Klosters reaches by the Gotschna cable car. Its other mountain is Madrisa. What Klosters does not have on the doorstep is the rest of Davos's spread: for the Jakobshorn or Rinerhorn, you travel.

So the size question comes down to habit. If you would spend most days on the Parsenn anyway, Klosters gives you the same one. If you like a different mountain every day, Davos has more of them close by.

Altitude: the same top, a higher town

Davos sits at 1,560 metres, the fourth highest village of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover and 369 metres above Klosters at 1,191. At the top, nothing separates them. Where they differ is in between.

Both count as snow sure on our measure. At Davos, 78 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 2,808. At Klosters it is 69 percent, up to the same top. Nobody can promise snow, but Davos keeps more of its skiing up high. The gap is at the bottom: Klosters's piste reaches down to 988 metres by our measure, against 1,189 at Davos, and in a thin winter the lowest runs are the first to suffer.

The skiing: Davos has more of everything, Klosters is gentler

Davos has more skiing at every level. It has 62.5 kilometres of blue and easier piste against 23.7 at Klosters. It has 20.7 kilometres of black, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against 11.7. It has 13.3 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary against 6.5. Both grade the Swiss way, so the shares compare fairly: Davos splits almost evenly, 43 percent easy, 42 red and 14 black, while Klosters is nearly two thirds red, with only 24 percent easy.

Who each one actually suits

Davos suits mixed groups, families with a range of ages, and anyone travelling with someone who will not ski every day. It is a working town rather than a chalet village, with trams, proper supermarkets, shops and one of the biggest natural ice rinks in Europe, so a rest day is never wasted. Davos Platz is the busier end, near the Jakobshorn, which draws the freestyle crowd and the liveliest bars. Davos Dorf is calmer and sits by the Parsenn railway. Pick your end by which mountain you want first thing. The evenings are a slow burn with plenty of choice, from a late night on the Jakobshorn side to a quiet hotel bar.

Klosters suits people who want the opposite of a town. We tag it discreet, quiet, upmarket and good for families, and its own line describes it as the quiet, pretty neighbour to Davos. The Davos link is the point: you sleep somewhere quiet and pretty, and ski the same Parsenn as everyone else. It suits couples and families who are content with a quieter evening, and confident skiers who will happily take the Gotschna cable car up to the Parsenn each morning.

The bit nobody tells you

Klosters looks like a red run resort. Most of its piste is graded red, and less easy piste is marked there than at almost any resort we cover. It skis much softer than that suggests. Measured from the gradient, Klosters's reds average 17.1 percent and its blacks 21.1 percent, the gentlest averages for both of the 55 resorts we cover. Its reds are less than a point steeper than Davos's blues, at 16.2. Davos's reds average 20.7 and its blacks 25.8, against Swiss averages of 19.9 and 26.7.

These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so take them as a guide to how the week feels rather than a promise about any one run. But for a group of improvers ready to move off blue, Klosters's reds are about as kind a next step as we measure anywhere. A strong skier looking for a test should read Davos's black and itinerary figures instead.