Like Val Thorens, but in Switzerland: pick the part you would miss

Arosa is the Swiss resort we cover that our matching puts nearest to Val Thorens, and only three of the 55 resorts we cover come closer. Take away the altitude and the two mountains are built the same way: lots of easy ground, a solid middle of red, and blacks that mean it. Thirty-five percent of Arosa's piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 37 at Val Thorens. Twenty-four percent is steeper than one in four, against 25. Its blacks average 32.4 percent, the steepest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against Val Thorens's 32.2. Even the off piste lines up, with 8.5 kilometres of marked itinerary against 7.6.

It is the biggest of the Swiss picks, too. We measure 183 kilometres of piste around the village and 97 kilometres of blue and easier, both the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against Val Thorens's 211 and 134. And it is one area: Arosa Lenzerheide, 225 kilometres across two valleys with a single cable car between them, a figure the sources agree on.

What you give up is the height and the noise. The village is at 1,800 metres, the second highest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover but 500 below Val Thorens, and the skiing tops out at 2,848 by our measure, 306 below. It is still snow sure on our measure, with 65 percent of the piste we measure above 1,800 metres, but that is a long way from 96. Our read on Arosa is gentle, sunny and made for families, and 225 kilometres is not the Three Valleys.

If the snow is what you go to Val Thorens for, St Moritz is the one of these three that matches it on our measure, and edges it. Ninety-seven percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against Val Thorens's 96, the second biggest share of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. The skiing reaches 3,266 metres by our measure, 112 above Val Thorens's measured top. And no Swiss village we cover sits higher than its 1,822 metres, though that is still well below your usual front door.

The evenings are a different party. We class St Moritz as upmarket, and our read is glamorous and sunny, with a frozen lake full of events. The nights run to grand hotel bars and a handful of famous clubs that stay busy late in peak season, which is fun, but it is champagne rather than ski boots.

The skiing is smaller and less forgiving for a mixed group. Its mountains are scattered, Corvatsch and Diavolezza a journey from Corviglia and the town, and the 350 kilometres you may see covers all three on one pass. We measure 106 kilometres around the town, half Val Thorens's 211, and only 30 kilometres is blue and easier, under a quarter of your 134 of green and blue. There is no marked off piste itinerary at all. A group of confident red skiers will be happy. A group with beginners in it will run short of room.

Davos is the pick for the Val Thorens group whose strongest skiers set the agenda. No Swiss resort we cover has more black than its 20.7 kilometres, against Val Thorens's 15.8, and it has 13.3 kilometres of marked itinerary, against 7.6. It is snow sure on our measure, with 78 percent of the piste we measure above 1,800 metres, up to 2,808.

It is also the one of the three with a party end. Davos is a working town, busy and practical by our read, but our guide puts the loudest bars at the foot of the Jakobshorn, the freestyle mountain, with a younger crowd that keeps going after the lifts close. It is not Val Thorens after dark, but it is the nearest of the three.

The trade is height and shape. The town is at 1,560 metres, 740 below Val Thorens and the lowest of the three. The skiing is spread over separate mountains. The Parsenn, 95.5 kilometres, is the one properly shared with Klosters; for the rest you take a train, a bus or a car. Davos Klosters is sold as 300 kilometres, and an independent measurement makes it 224 across the same ten lift areas. And there is less easy skiing, 62.5 kilometres of blue and easier against your 134. The blacks are plentiful but kinder, averaging 25.8 percent against Val Thorens's 32.2.