Like Madonna di Campiglio, but in Austria: the cruising, the height or the grandeur

If the best of Madonna is a morning of long, easy runs strung across a linked mountain, Schladming is the nearest Austria comes. Its four mountains are joined end to end with no bus, 123 kilometres in all, a little short of Madonna's 155, yet we measure more piste around the town than around Madonna: 134 kilometres against 115. There are 59.3 kilometres of blue and easier against your 53.8, and 39 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, the largest share of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover.

The detail a Madonna cruiser will feel is the blues. They average 13.0 percent, a tenth of a point off your 12.9 and well under the Austrian average of 16.4. Our read on the town is down to earth and friendly and good for families, so the family week carries over too. The Ski amadé pass it sits on covers 760 kilometres, but across five regions that are not all joined; the 123 is what you ski from Schladming without a bus.

What you give up is height, and a lot of it. The town is at 745 metres, 805 below Madonna's village and the fourth lowest of the 55 resorts we cover. The skiing stops at 2,001 metres by our measure, and only 7 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, against your 61. The reds are steeper too, averaging 24.4 percent against 19.7, which is why 27 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four. And the evenings change register: this is a friendly valley town known for floodlit night skiing, not a pedestrian parade of smart shops and aperitivo bars.

If what you would miss is Madonna's height, Obertauern is the one to look at. Its village is at 1,740 metres, the highest of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover and 190 above Madonna's. On our snow measure the two are level, with 61 percent of the piste at or above 1,800 metres in both, and 36 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, exactly your share. Our read is high and snowy, ski in ski out, with the runs laid out as a neat loop, and the season runs from late November into May, a little longer at each end than yours.

It does not pass our snow sure test, though, and for the same reason Madonna sits on the line rather than over it: the top. Obertauern's skiing stops at 2,304 metres by our measure, 192 below Madonna's.

The bigger catches are size and the steep end. We measure 74 kilometres of piste around the village, the least of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover and well under your 115, with 40.9 kilometres of blue and easier. The reds average 25.3 percent against your 19.7, so 29 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four. There are only 4 kilometres of black, but what there is averages 37.8 percent, the steepest average black of the 55 resorts we cover. A Madonna group that likes to cover ground will find it small. Our matching also drops both the upmarket and the family tags here: this is a week for the snow and the circuit, not the polish.

Madonna's elegance has a long history behind it; the place has been fashionable since the Habsburg era. The Austrian pick with a similar sense of occasion is Bad Gastein, grand and characterful by our read, with the belle époque, spas and scenery on its list of what it does best. Of the three picks it is the only one whose strengths are as much about the afternoon off the slopes as the skiing.

It is also the only pick whose skiing goes higher than yours: 2,644 metres by our measure, 148 above Madonna's top. And it has the longest easy run of the four. Its longest piste is a 3.1 kilometre blue dropping 358 metres; Madonna's longest is a 2.3 kilometre blue with 224.

Underfoot, though, it is the biggest change of the three. Thirty-seven percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, the third biggest share of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover and twice Madonna's 18, and only 29 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 36. The shape is different too. Bad Gastein's own area is 83 kilometres, one of four separate areas down the valley that share the Ski amadé pass without being joined by lift, and we measure 107 kilometres of piste around the village. The village sits at 1,000 metres, 550 below yours, and half the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres. For a confident couple who want the spa and the scenery, it is a lovely week. For a family that came to love Madonna's gentle blues, it is a stretch.