St. Moritz or Zermatt: more to do, or more to ski?
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20266 min read
St. Moritz and Zermatt are the two Swiss names people reach for when the trip should feel like an occasion. Both are upmarket, both are high, both clear our snow sure bar with room to spare, and at both the train is part of the journey in. You will eat well at either, and look at something extraordinary.
So the choice is not about snow or status. It is about what the week is for. Zermatt is a ski area first: three sectors joined by lift, a glacier, a link over the border to Italy, and a car free village at the bottom. St. Moritz is a town first, a sunny lakeside resort with skiing on separate mountains around it and a long list of things to do when you are not skiing. Which of those your group wants is the whole question.
The numbers, side by side
| Figure | St. Moritz | Zermatt |
|---|---|---|
| Village altitude | 1,822 m | 1,620 m |
| Top of the skiing, measured | 3,266 m | 3,869 m, the top station it shares with Cervinia |
| Linked ski area | None as such. Separate mountains on the Engadin pass, quoted at 350 km | The Matterhorn area with Cervinia: 322 km by our measure, quoted at 360 km. The Italian side needs the International pass |
| Piste we measure around the village | 106 km | 150.5 km |
| Blue and easier | 30 km, 28% of the piste | 33 km, 22% of the piste |
| Black | 15.7 km | 11.2 km |
| Marked off piste itinerary | None recorded | 23 km |
| Piste steeper than one in four | 24% | 12% |
| Piste gentler than 15% | 28% | 35% |
| Piste at or above 1,800 m | 97% | 99% |
| Season | December to April | Year round on the glacier |
| Nearest airport | Zurich | Zurich or Geneva |
Three rows carry the decision. The ski area row says Zermatt's skiing joins up and St. Moritz's does not. The top row says Zermatt goes 603 metres higher. And the steep row runs the opposite way to the two reputations.
Size: Zermatt is one ski area, St. Moritz is several
We measure 150.5 kilometres of piste around Zermatt, the second most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. It comes in three sectors joined by lift: Gornergrat, reached by the old cog railway, Sunnegga and the Rothorn above the village, and the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise at the top. With Cervinia, over the border, we measure the whole area at 322 kilometres, against the 360 you will see quoted. The Italian side needs the International pass rather than the Zermatt one.
St. Moritz's 350 kilometres is a different kind of number. It is the Engadin lift pass, and it covers separate mountains: Corviglia straight above the town, Corvatsch across the valley above Silvaplana and Sils, and Diavolezza and Lagalb out towards the Bernina pass. They are not one linked area. Around the town itself we measure 106 kilometres, a little under the 116 at a typical resort we cover.
That suits the way a lot of people ski St. Moritz: Corviglia until lunch, a lunch that takes its time, and the afternoon in town. A group that wants new runs until the lifts close will be happier in Zermatt.
Altitude: St. Moritz sleeps higher, Zermatt skis higher
St. Moritz's village sits at 1,822 metres, the highest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover and 202 metres above Zermatt's 1,620. That is the only altitude row it wins. Zermatt's skiing reaches 3,869 metres by our measure, the joint highest top of the skiing of all 55 resorts we cover (level with Cervinia, which shares the top station), against 3,266 at St. Moritz.
Both are snow sure on our measure. At Zermatt, 99 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 3,869 metres. At St. Moritz it is 97 percent, up to 3,266. Both are in the top five of the 55 we cover on that share. Nobody can promise snow, but neither is a resort where you spend January refreshing the forecast.
The gap opens higher up. Half of Zermatt's piste is above 2,634 metres, against 2,456 at St. Moritz, and 85 percent of it is above 2,200 metres, against 74. Add a glacier that keeps Zermatt going all year, against St. Moritz's December to April, and for a week after Easter the altitude argument goes to Zermatt.
The skiing: St. Moritz has the steeper pistes
This is where the names mislead. Zermatt has the serious reputation, and on the marked runs it is the gentler of the two by a distance. Only 12 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, the smallest share of the 55 resorts we cover. At St. Moritz it is 24 percent, twice as much and close to the 26 percent at a typical resort we cover.
30 km blue and easier 28%60 km red 57%16 km black 15%
33 km blue and easier 22%107 km red 71%11 km black 8%
Marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste totals: Zermatt 23 km.
Both grade the Swiss way, so the colour shares compare fairly here. St. Moritz spreads its piste across the colours: 28 percent blue and easier, 57 percent red and 15 percent black, which comes to 15.7 kilometres of black. The longest piste we measure there, the Hahnensee, is a 3.2 kilometre black with 764 metres of vertical. Zermatt is a red mountain, 71 percent of it, with 11.2 kilometres of black. On the groomed runs, a strong skier gets more to chew on at St. Moritz.
Off the piste the order flips. Zermatt has 23 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, the third most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. We record none at St. Moritz, which is not the same as none at all: strong skiers go to Corvatsch and Diavolezza, and down past the Morteratsch glacier with a guide.
Who each one actually suits
St. Moritz suits a group where not everyone skis every day. The frozen lake hosts snow polo and the White Turf horse racing, the Cresta Run has sent riders head first down its ice since 1885, and there are spas, smart shops, sleigh rides and the Bernina railway for a day out. Couples and multi generational families do especially well, and the evenings run to hotel bars and champagne rather than ski boots on tables.
Stay in Dorf, the smart half on the hillside with the funicular to Corviglia, or in Bad by the lake, calmer and more residential. Villages such as Celerina and Pontresina share the same lifts and the same sun.
Zermatt suits people for whom the skiing is the main event and the setting a close second. Confident intermediates can cruise long reds all week, strong skiers can hire a guide for the off piste, and anyone on the International pass can ski over to Cervinia for an Italian lunch. The car free village is a gift for families, with no traffic and children who can be given a little more freedom. The evenings are grown up without being dead. Know that ski in, ski out is rare: most people walk or take an electric taxi to the lifts.
What the colours hide
If someone in your group is in their first or second week, St. Moritz is the harder place to make progress, because of its blues. Measured gradients are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so read them as how a week feels. St. Moritz's blues average 16.4 percent, the second steepest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover.
Zermatt's blues average 13.8 percent. Its reds average 17.2, under a point steeper than a St. Moritz blue, and only one of the 55 resorts we cover has gentler reds. So Zermatt's 71 percent red is less of a warning than it looks. For an improver, much of that mountain opens up sooner than the piste map suggests. At St. Moritz, more of the map stays out of reach for longer.
So, which one
the holiday is bigger than the skiing: someone in the party will not ski every day, you want the sun, the lake and a town with plenty going on, or you are strong piste skiers who like a steeper groomed run and do not mind picking a mountain each morning.
the skiing is the point: one linked area, the joint highest skiing of any resort we cover, marked off piste, a glacier that keeps going after Easter, and long, kind reds for a mixed group. Also if a car free village under the Matterhorn sounds like the evening you want.
It gives more skiing, higher and all joined up, to more of the group, and the village alone would be worth the trip. St. Moritz is the right answer when the days off the slopes matter as much as the days on them, and for those groups it wins by some way.