Like Davos, but in Austria: how close can you get?

Our matching puts Lech nearer to Davos than any other Austrian resort we cover, and for a group of mixed ability it is easy to see why. The share of gentle ground is identical, 31 percent of the piste gentler than 15 percent at both, and everything else around the village is bigger. We measure 175 kilometres of piste against 145, the third most of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, with 79 kilometres of blue and easier against 62.5 and 26 of black against 21.

For the Davos skier who heads off piste, it is a different league. Lech has 56 kilometres of marked itinerary, more than four times Davos's 13 and the second most of the 55 resorts we cover. We tag it family, families are on its list of what it does best, and Oberlech above the village is the family favourite. When the group wants a loud night, St Anton is on the same pass.

What you give up is height at the top, and the town. The village is at 1,450 metres, only 110 below Davos, but the skiing tops out at 2,440 metres by our measure, 368 below Davos's top, and 61 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against 78. That top falls just under the 2,500 metres our snow sure test asks for, so we leave the call open. And Lech is a village of low roofs and a river, refined and upmarket by our read, where Davos is busy and practical. The non skier gets hotel spas and a walkable village rather than a town's worth of things to do. A third of the piste is steeper than one in four, too, against 23 percent at Davos.

Ischgl shares two of Davos's three headline strengths on our list: a big area and snow sure skiing. On our measure the two are nearly the same size, 152 kilometres of piste around Ischgl against 145, and Ischgl's is one linked area, running across the border to Samnaun in Switzerland. The skiing tops out at 2,868 metres by our measure, 60 above Davos's, and 90 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, the second biggest share of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover. The season runs from late November into May.

Some of it will feel very familiar. Ischgl's reds average 20.7 percent, exactly Davos's figure, there are 11 kilometres of marked itinerary against 13, and 27 kilometres of black against 21, the fifth most of the 55 resorts we cover.

The trade is the easy end and the evening. There are 43 kilometres of blue and easier against Davos's 62.5, and 34 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 23, so a nervous skier has far less room. The village, at 1,377 metres, is 183 below Davos and compact, and its nights are the loudest thing about it: our read is high energy and snowy, best for nightlife. Families can make it work by staying away from the busiest streets, but it is a party village first, not a town.

If the Davos promise you care about is the snow, Hintertux goes further than either. Its glacier is the only one in Austria open every day of the year, our read is snowy and no frills, and 96 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, the biggest share of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover. The skiing reaches 3,239 metres by our measure, 431 above Davos's top, and the village, at 1,500 metres, is only 60 below Davos. We tag both modern.

The shape will be familiar too. Like Davos, Hintertux sits on a pass of separate areas: the glacier itself is 62 kilometres, and the wider Ski Zillertal 3000 needs a bus. Around the village we measure 110 kilometres.

But it is not a Davos week. There are 3 kilometres of black, the least of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, and no marked itinerary at all. The blues average 19.3 percent, the steepest of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, so the easy skiing is not that easy. It is best for the glacier, the snow and training: a week for keen skiers who put the snow first, not for a mixed group with a non skier in tow.