Like Les Arcs, but in Italy: nearer than you might think

Sestriere is the one pick built the way Les Arcs is: purpose built and modern by our read, in one linked area. The 400 kilometres quoted for the Via Lattea, the Milky Way, includes Montgenèvre over the French border, which is only on the dearer International pass. Subtract its 95 and the Italian lifts come to about 305, our own sum, since no one publishes an Italy only number. Around the village we measure 160 kilometres, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against your 200.

Then the blues, which average 12.0 percent: gentler than yours, and second gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover. You would not guess it from the map, where 58 percent of Sestriere is graded red and the blue and easier comes to 50 kilometres, well under half your 117 of green and blue. But it is gentle red, at 21.1 percent on average against 24.3 at Les Arcs. For the strong skiers there are 17.9 kilometres of black, the most of the Italian resorts we cover, and 10.8 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, against your 1.7.

It sits higher, too. The village is at 2,035 metres, 435 above yours and the fourth highest of the 55 resorts we cover, and it is snow sure on our measure with a bigger share of high piste than Les Arcs: 91 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,788, against your 73.

What you give up is the family label and some height. Our read on Sestriere is high and practical, a place for snow and value rather than a family resort. Overall it is a little steeper than Les Arcs: 35 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 48, and 30 percent is steeper than one in four, against 26. And the skiing stops 420 metres below yours.

On our matching, Alta Badia is the nearest resort to Les Arcs anywhere, and the reasons are the ones a family notices. The village is at 1,568 metres, 32 below yours. It is a family resort by our read, warm and welcoming, spread across a string of Ladin villages along the valley rather than bases built on the slope. And it is gentle almost everywhere: 40 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, joint fourth of the 55 resorts we cover, and only 15 percent is steeper than one in four, against your 26. No other Italian resort we cover has as much blue and easier: 76 kilometres. Its blues, at 14.4 percent on average, are steeper than the Les Arcs ones but kinder than the 16.2 percent a French blue typically averages.

Size is a different sum here. Around the village we measure 124.5 kilometres, against an own sector of 130, which looks small next to Paradiski. Base yourself on the Sella Ronda, though, and roughly 500 kilometres is in reach by lift. That figure is ours, added up from measured areas, so treat it as approximate. The Dolomiti Superski pass covers 1,200 kilometres across twelve areas, and only four of them are joined by lift.

The trade is the hard end. The skiing tops out at 2,509 metres by our measure, 699 below yours. It is snow sure on our measure with less room than Les Arcs: 65 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres. Black comes to 7.5 kilometres, under a third of your 24. The days revolve around lunch, with Ladin cooking and long tables in the mountain huts. A family that skis blues all week will love it. A teenager who has just discovered the Aiguille Rouge will run out of mountain by Wednesday.

Val Gardena's blues average 12.8 percent, a fraction steeper than yours and among the five gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover. Its reds average 17.3 percent, the third gentlest of the 55 we cover, and only 13 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, the second smallest share of the 55 we cover. Forty percent is gentler than 15 percent. A child who learned on Les Arcs blues could move onto these reds without much drama.

It also has more for the strong skier than Alta Badia: 16.4 kilometres of black, against 7.5 there and 24 at home. We measure 145 kilometres around the village, the second most of the Italian resorts we cover, and its own sector is 175. It shares the Sella Ronda and the Dolomiti Superski pass with Alta Badia, so the same caveat applies: the 1,200 kilometres is a pass, not a ski area.

The trade is the look of the map and the feel of the place. Sixty percent of the piste is graded red and there are 42 kilometres of blue and easier, so a nervous skier has to trust the gradient over the colour. The village is at 1,563 metres and the skiing reaches 2,731 by our measure, the top of a lift above the highest piste we measure; 66 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, enough to call it snow sure on our measure. And it is scenic and traditional by our read, a classic Dolomite valley with woodcarving among its draws, where Les Arcs is modern and built for convenience.