Klosters or Laax: two gentle Swiss mountains, one quiet and one modern

Size: Laax is one linked area, Klosters a pass of separate mountains

Laax's area, Flims Laax Falera, is 176 kilometres of piste, all of it linked. It is marketed as 216, which is the 176 plus 40 kilometres of ski route.

Klosters needs a more careful sentence. The Davos Klosters pass is sold as 300 kilometres, and measured across the same ten lift areas it comes to 224, on six separate mountains. Only the Parsenn, 95.5 kilometres with 18 lifts, is genuinely shared with Davos, and Klosters reaches it by the Gotschna cable car. Its other mountain is Madrisa. The rest need a train, a bus or a car.

Our own measurement of the piste around each village puts Laax ahead: 124 kilometres against 97, which is 27 more. If your group judges a week by how far it can ski without a bus, Laax gives it more.

Altitude: level at the door, Laax a little higher on the hill

Klosters's village is at 1,191 metres and Laax's at 1,100. Laax's skiing reaches 2,968 metres by our measure, 160 above Klosters's 2,808. The middle of the skiing is close: half of Laax's piste sits above 2,127 metres, half of Klosters's above 2,046.

Both are snow sure on our measure. At Laax, 72 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 2,968 metres. At Klosters it is 69 percent, up to 2,808. Laax keeps a little more of it high, 41 percent at or above 2,200 metres against 34, and Klosters's lowest piste reaches down to 988 metres, against 1,052 at Laax. Nobody can promise snow. On these figures there is little to choose, with a small edge to Laax.

The skiing: the same gentle shape, different labels

On the measure we trust most across resorts, these two are near twins. Fifteen percent of Klosters's piste is steeper than one in four, and 14 percent of Laax's, the third smallest share of the 55 resorts we cover. At the other end, 38 and 37 percent is gentler than 15 percent. Both grade the Swiss way, so here the colours can be compared too, and they do not match.

Who each one actually suits

Klosters suits people who want quiet. It is discreet and pretty by our read, and we class it as upmarket, quiet and family, with discreet, families and the Davos link on its list of what it does best. It suits families and steady intermediates who want gentle reds, a base without fuss, and Davos's mountains on the same pass.

Laax suits a different crowd. Our read is modern and youthful, and we list it for snowboarding, freestyle and design; it is upmarket too. It suits snowboarders and freestyle skiers, anyone who wants a modern resort with some style to it, beginners who need plenty of blue on the map, and strong skiers who would rather have marked itinerary than black. Nothing in our data measures terrain parks, so we cannot compare the freestyle itself.

The bit nobody tells you

Klosters has the gentlest reds and blacks of the 55 resorts we cover, so you might expect its blues to be soft as well. They are not. They average 15.9 percent, the fourth steepest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover and above the Swiss average for a blue of 15.0. Laax's blues average 14.4, under it.

So Klosters's gentleness lives in its reds. A steady intermediate will love that: kind reds all week, and blacks that average 21.1 percent against a typical Swiss black at 26.7. A true beginner will find fewer blues at Klosters, and steeper ones on average, than at Laax. If someone in your group is in their first week, that settles it.