Like Les Arcs, but in Switzerland: the size or the gentle runs?

Our matching puts Arosa nearest to Les Arcs of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, and for a family week it earns that. It is one linked area: a single cable car joins Arosa's valley to Lenzerheide's for 225 kilometres, and three sources agree on the figure. We measure 183 kilometres of piste around the village, a Swiss best among the resorts we cover and not far short of your 200, and 97 of those kilometres are blue and easier, again the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against your 117 of green and blue. Families and sunshine top its list and we read it as gentle, which is most of the Les Arcs brief.

It also starts higher. The village is at 1,800 metres, the second highest of the Swiss resorts we cover and 200 above your 1,600. It passes our snow sure test, with 65 percent of the measured piste above 1,800 metres and skiing up to 2,848.

What you give up is the very gentlest ground. Thirty-five percent of Arosa's piste is gentler than 15 percent, against your 48, and its blues average 15.4 percent against 12.6. Still kind, but a nervous six year old will notice. The top is 360 metres lower than yours, and the black runs to 14.5 kilometres against your 24, though no Swiss resort we cover has steeper blacks on average: 32.4 percent. And Arosa Lenzerheide is a little over half of Paradiski, so the strong skiers in the group will cover it faster.

If the part of Les Arcs you love is how forgiving the mountain is, Grindelwald comes nearer than either of the others. Forty-two percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, the third biggest share of the 55 resorts we cover, and only 15 percent is steeper than one in four, against your 26. Its reds average 18.3 percent, among the five gentlest of the 55 we cover. Yet it keeps something back for the strong skier: 19.1 kilometres of black, the third most of the Swiss resorts we cover, against your 24.

It is a family resort by our read, and a very pretty one: a traditional village under the north face of the Eiger, with trains and gondolas to carry you up to the skiing. If your family likes the funicular up to Les Arcs, the railways here are the same idea on a grander scale.

The trade is height, and a mountain in pieces. The village is at 1,034 metres, 566 below yours, and the skiing tops out at 2,496 metres by our measure, 712 below. Fifty-nine percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, but the top sits a few metres under the 2,500 metre line in our snow sure test, so we have not called it either way. The Jungfrau pass covers 211 kilometres across three areas, and Mürren and the Schilthorn, 54 of those kilometres, are not joined by lift. From Grindelwald's own lifts you can reach 150. And you ride up to the skiing rather than stepping out onto it.

Crans-Montana sits at 1,500 metres, 100 below your village, the nearest of the three. Our read on it is sunny and smart, a plateau with wide views over the Rhône, and its list runs to golf, spa and families. It is snow sure on our measure, with a bigger share of high piste than Les Arcs: 79 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, against your 73, up to 2,868 metres. Its 140 kilometres is one linked area, and one of the two cleanest figures we hold for Switzerland: three independent sources agree to the kilometre.

Underfoot it is gentle, but not in the way you are used to. The map is mostly red, 59 percent of the piste, and there are only 22 kilometres of blue and easier, among the five smallest totals of the 55 resorts we cover. The reds are kind, averaging 19.2 percent against 24.3 at Les Arcs, and 36 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent. A confident family will be happy on those reds. A family with a first timer has much less room than at home.

The bigger gap is size. We measure 85 kilometres around the village, well under half of your 200, so this is a smaller, sunnier, smarter week rather than a Paradiski week.