Like Chamonix, but in Switzerland: how close can you get?

Engelberg is built the way Chamonix is. The village sits low, at 1,000 metres, the lowest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover and just 35 below Chamonix, and the mountain goes a long way up from it: the skiing reaches 3,004 metres by our measure, with a glacier at the top. The season runs December to May, the same as yours, and it is snow sure on our measure, with 53 percent of the piste we measure above 1,800 metres. Our read on it is down to earth and snowy, a freeride resort near Lucerne rather than a polished one.

It is also the steepest Swiss resort we cover, on both of our measures: the biggest share of piste steeper than one in four, and the steepest reds, averaging 24.0 percent. And its real draw is not on the piste at all. The Laub and Steintäli freeride descents are why people go, and they appear in none of the figures in that table, so the 1.8 kilometres of marked itinerary undersells the place badly. Take a mountain guide, as you would at home.

The trade is piste. We measure 46 kilometres, the third least of the 55 resorts we cover. The classified figure is 70 kilometres on the Titlis, with Brunni across the valley joined by a free ski bus rather than a lift. There are 4.5 kilometres of black against Chamonix's 23, and 19.6 kilometres of green and blue, less than half Chamonix's. For a strong group chasing powder that hardly matters. For anyone who wants miles of groomed skiing, it does.

Our matching puts Andermatt closer to Chamonix than any other Swiss resort we cover, and for a Chamonix skier the draw is what lies beside the piste. It has 21 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, about half Chamonix's 44 and the fourth most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. The longest, the Guspis-Route, runs 5.5 kilometres with 1,170 metres of vertical by our measure. We class it as expert, as we do Chamonix, and our read is a snowy sleeper in the middle of Switzerland, with a name for snowfall.

On the piste it holds up better than its size suggests. Twenty-seven percent is steeper than one in four, the second biggest share of the Swiss resorts we cover, and its blacks average 30.7 percent, steeper than Chamonix's 28.5. It sits higher, too: the village is at 1,444 metres, 409 above Chamonix's, and it is snow sure on our measure, with 76 percent of the piste we measure above 1,800 metres, up to 2,922. The pass covers 180 kilometres with Sedrun and Disentis, all linked, though the Gemsstock sits outside the linked area.

What you give up is volume and a town. We measure 61 kilometres of piste around the village, among the five smallest of the 55 resorts we cover, and 8 kilometres of black, and the season stops in April. Our read on Andermatt is reborn and up and coming: a resort finding its feet.

If what you would miss is the town, Davos is the Swiss answer. It is a proper working town, busy and practical by our read, with trams, supermarkets, a big natural ice rink and evenings that spread across bars and restaurants rather than one square. It even skis the way Chamonix does, as separate mountains joined by train and bus. Only the Parsenn is truly shared with Klosters, and the official 300 kilometres sits 34 percent above the 224 we measure across the same ten lift areas. Around the town we measure 145 kilometres, 42 more than Chamonix.

There is serious skiing in it. Davos has 21 kilometres of black, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover and close to Chamonix's 23, plus 13 kilometres of marked itinerary, long Parsenn runs down to Klosters, and freeride on the Jakobshorn. The town sits at 1,560 metres, 525 above Chamonix, and it is snow sure on our measure: 78 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,808.

The trade is the edge. Only 23 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 39, and the gradients are kinder all round: blacks averaging 25.8 percent against 28.5, reds 20.7 against 27.0. We do not class Davos as expert. It is a Chamonix week for a group that loves the town and skis hard, not one that needs the mountain to frighten it.