Like Ischgl, but in Switzerland: the snow travels, the party stays home

Our matching puts Davos closer to Ischgl than any resort we cover outside Austria, and you can see why. Big area and snow sure are on its list, two of Ischgl's three. We measure 145 kilometres of piste around the town, not far short of Ischgl's 152. It is snow sure on our measure: 78 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,808 metres, 60 below Ischgl's top, from a town at 1,560 metres, 183 above Ischgl's village. The reds average 20.7 percent, exactly Ischgl's figure. There are 20.7 kilometres of black, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, and 13.3 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, against Ischgl's 10.6.

The trade is the shape. Davos and Klosters share a pass across separate mountains, and only one, the Parsenn, at 95.5 kilometres, is genuinely shared by the two; the rest need a train, a bus or a car. The official 300 kilometres sits 34 percent above the 224 we measure across the same ten lift areas. The mountain is softer, too: 23 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 34, and the blacks average 25.8 percent against 29.9.

As for the nights, Davos is busy and practical by our read, a real town that does not shut when the lifts do. It is not lively in our tags, but our guide puts a younger, louder crowd in the bars at the foot of the Jakobshorn. That is not Ischgl. It is not early nights either.

If what you love is the sense of one huge mountain from the door, Arosa does it better than Davos. Its skiing is a single linked area, Arosa Lenzerheide, 225 kilometres across two valleys joined by one cable car, with three sources in agreement on the figure. Around the village we measure 183 kilometres, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover and 31 more than Ischgl's 152.

It sits higher at the door than anything here. The village is at 1,800 metres, the second highest of the Swiss resorts we cover and 423 above Ischgl's, and it is snow sure on our measure: 65 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,848 metres. The blacks average 32.4 percent, the steepest of the Swiss resorts we cover and steeper than Ischgl's 29.9.

What you give up is the volume, in both senses. Our read on Arosa is gentle and sunny, a family bowl, with families, sunshine and snow sure on its list. There are 14.5 kilometres of black against 27, and 97 of blue and easier, more than twice Ischgl's 43 and the most of the Swiss resorts we cover. For an Ischgl group with beginners in it, that is a gift. For one that lives on the long reds and the bars, it is a gentler week than you are used to.

Crans-Montana is the surprise. On paper its mountain has Ischgl's shape: 59 percent red, 26 blue and easier and 15 black, against Ischgl's 54, 28 and 18. Its skiing tops out at 2,868 metres by our measure, the same figure as Ischgl's, and it is snow sure on our measure: 79 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,868, the fourth largest share of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. The village is at 1,500 metres, 123 above Ischgl's. And the area figure is one of the two cleanest in our Swiss data: 140 kilometres, all linked, with three independent sources agreeing to the kilometre.

The trade is scale and bite. We measure 85 kilometres of piste around the village, with 22 kilometres of blue and easier, among the five smallest figures of the 55 resorts we cover, so a mixed group has little easy ground. The reds average 19.2 percent against 20.7, and only 22 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 34. Our read is sunny and smart, a plateau with wide views over the Rhône and golf and spa on its list, not a party.