Like Argentière, but in Austria: the steep or the quiet, on one Arlberg

If you go to Argentière for the hardest skiing you can find, St Anton is as near as any Austrian resort we cover, and there is far more of it. Forty-three percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, the joint second biggest share of the 55 resorts we cover, behind only Argentière. The reds average 25.8 percent, the sixth steepest of the 55 resorts we cover, and the blacks 34.1 percent, the eighth steepest of the 55 resorts we cover and steeper than your 31.8. We class both as expert.

Then there is what lies beside the piste. St Anton has 70 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, the most of any of the 55 resorts we cover, against your 9. Around the village we measure 155 kilometres of piste against your 44, with 24 kilometres of black against your 14.7. You swap a corner of a valley for the lively heart of the huge Arlberg region.

The height is close enough at the door and short at the top. The village sits at 1,304 metres, 52 above yours, and the skiing reaches 2,799 by our measure, 423 short of your top. With 71 percent of the piste at or above 1,800 metres, against your 83, St Anton is snow sure on our measure too. There is not much gentle ground, 24 percent gentler than 15 percent, among the five smallest shares of the 55 resorts we cover, though still more than your 17.

The trade is the quiet. St Anton is energetic and social by our read, with nightlife on its list of what it does best, and the party is woven through the place: the afternoon starts in the bars on the piste above the village and ends with a ski home past them. The season ends in April rather than May, and you fly to Innsbruck or Zurich rather than Geneva.

Our matching puts Zürs closer to Argentière than any other Austrian resort we cover, and what it carries over is the quiet. It is a tiny, exclusive corner of the Arlberg, as Argentière is a corner of its valley, and we read it as exclusive and quiet. The off piste comes with it: 40 kilometres of marked itinerary, the third most of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover and the fourth most of the 55 resorts we cover, against your 9. The longest, the Hasenfluhscharte, runs 2.3 kilometres with 689 metres of vertical by our measure.

The village sits high, at 1,720 metres, 468 above yours and the second highest of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover. It is short of easy skiing in a way you will recognise: 21 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, the smallest share of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, and the blues average 17.5 percent, against your 18.4.

The trade is the hard end and the top. We do not class Zürs as expert. Thirty-three percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against your 59, and there are 6 kilometres of black against your 14.7. The skiing tops out at 2,440 metres by our measure, 782 below yours, with 74 percent of the piste at or above 1,800. We measure 75 kilometres around the village, and that measurement overlaps St Anton's. It is upmarket, and Innsbruck or Zurich is the flight.