Like Schladming, but in Switzerland: the same mountain, with its piste up high

If you love Schladming for the skiing itself, Adelboden is the nearest Switzerland comes, and the piste figures are uncanny. It has 12.9 kilometres of black, the same figure as Schladming. Thirty eight percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 39, and 25 percent is steeper than one in four, against 27. The blacks average 26.1 percent against 25.0. The one real difference on the mountain is the reds: Adelboden's average 21.3 percent, against Schladming's 24.4, so the step up from blue is gentler.

It keeps the feel, too. Our read on Adelboden is traditional and warm, a classic chalet village linked to Lenk, with tradition, families and the World Cup on its list, and we class it as traditional and family. Night skiing and value are on Schladming's list, not Adelboden's.

What it adds is height. The village is at 1,350 metres, 605 above Schladming's, and the skiing tops out at 2,356, measured, 355 higher. Fifty five percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against 7, and half of it lies above 1,829 metres. The skiing stops short of the height our snow sure test also asks for, so we do not call it snow sure. But most of the piste sits above the line that Schladming's barely reaches.

The area works the way a Schladming regular will recognise. The Adelboden pass covers 188 kilometres across five areas that are not all joined, as Ski amadé's five regions are not. From the village you ski 85 kilometres without transport, Lenk included, against the 123 of Schladming's four mountains. We measure 114.6 kilometres around Adelboden, 19 fewer than around Schladming; at both, our measure runs past the linked figure, so read it as a guide to size. The nearest airports are Zurich or Geneva.

Wengen is next on our matching's Swiss list for Schladming, and on the gentle ground it matches: 39 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, the same share as Schladming and the same joint seventh place of the 55 resorts we cover. Our read on it is peaceful and car free, a balcony village under the Jungfrau, with car free living, scenery and families on its list, and we class it as quiet, car free and family.

The rest of the mountain leans gentle too, with one exception. Only 20 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 27, and the reds average 20.1 percent against 24.4. But there is more black: 20.4 kilometres against 12.9, the second most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. The village is at 1,274 metres, 529 above Schladming's.

Wengen's figures need a caution, and we would rather give it than hide it. The area we map around Wengen runs on above its own skiing, up to the Jungfraujoch, so the 125.3 kilometres we measure, and the 66 percent of it at or above 1,800 metres, take in ground a Wengen week may never touch. Its own sector, which it shares with Grindelwald, is 101 kilometres; the Jungfrau pass covers three areas, and Mürren is on it but not joined by lift. We make no snow call for Wengen until we have checked it, and the top we print is its top lift.