Livigno or Sölden: the high village or the high mountain

Altitude: Livigno is higher at the door, Sölden higher on the hill

Livigno's village sits at 1,816 metres, 448 above Sölden's 1,368. All of the piste we measure at Livigno is at or above 1,800 metres, joint first of the 55 resorts we cover on that measure. The lowest piste we measure is at 1,813 metres, the height of the village.

Sölden answers on the mountain. Its skiing reaches 3,306 metres by our measure, the highest of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover and fifth highest of the 55 we cover, and 539 metres above Livigno's 2,767. It has two glaciers, the Rettenbach and the Tiefenbach, and three peaks over 3,000 metres linked by lift.

Here is the surprise. For all Livigno's height at the door, the middle of Sölden's skiing sits higher. Half of Sölden's piste is above 2,402 metres, against 2,352 at Livigno, and Sölden has the bigger share above 2,000 metres too, 82 percent against 79. What Livigno has that Sölden does not is a village up among it: Sölden's lower runs come down to a valley floor, which is where its other 11 percent sits.

Both count as snow sure on our measure. At Livigno, 100 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 2,767 metres. At Sölden it is 89 percent, up to 3,306 metres. Nobody can promise snow. On these figures both are well placed, and Sölden's glaciers are the extra insurance at either end of the season.

Size: Sölden has more of it, and it joins up

Sölden's area is quoted at 144 kilometres, a figure we have not checked. Measured from the run geometry ourselves, we make it 135 kilometres around the village, and the peaks and glaciers are linked by lift, so all of it is on skis.

Livigno's area is 115 kilometres, and we measure 81 around the village. It is split into two sectors that face each other across the valley, with no lift between them, so each day starts by choosing a side.

The skiing: Sölden for a mixed group, Livigno for a confident one

The blue row is the one to read slowly. Sölden has 77 kilometres of blue and easier piste, 57 percent of what we measure. Livigno has 25 kilometres, 30 percent. More than half of Livigno's piste is graded red. If anyone in your group is still on blues, Sölden gives them roughly three times the room.

Who each one actually suits

Sölden suits groups of friends who want to ski hard and stay out late, confident intermediates who like long, open runs and big days, and anyone who wants glacier height in the bag. The nightlife is a headline: few Austrian resorts do the party as convincingly. The trade is the village: long, strung along the valley floor with a busy road through it, functional and buzzy rather than pretty. Where you stay along it matters. Families do better up at Hochsölden, above the road and nearer the snow.

Livigno suits people who want the high village itself: skiing that starts at the village and a lively feel, at 1,816 metres, the third highest village of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. It is duty free, and value is part of its appeal. It suits a group of confident skiers best, people who spend their week on red and like it steep, and who do not mind picking a side of the valley each morning.

The bit nobody tells you

Livigno is sold on height and duty free. What nobody mentions is how steep it is. Forty percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, the fifth biggest share of the 55 resorts we cover, against 30 percent at Sölden and 26 at a typical resort we cover.

The blues show it best. Livigno's average 17.8 percent, the joint fourth steepest of the 55 resorts we cover, against an Italian average of 14.4. Sölden's are not soft either, 17.3 against an Austrian average of 16.4. Those are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so take them as how the week feels rather than a verdict on any one run.

Put that together with Livigno's 25 kilometres of blue and easier, and an improver has less room and steeper room. For a strong group that is a good thing. For a mixed one it is the reason to look twice.