Verbier or Zermatt: the better nights, or the bigger, higher mountain

Size: Zermatt has more than half as much again

Around Verbier we measure about 97 kilometres of piste, a little under the 116 at a typical resort we cover. Around Zermatt we measure 150.5, the second most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, and more than half as much again.

The 410 kilometres quoted for Verbier is the Four Valleys lift pass, shared with Nendaz, Veysonnaz and Thyon. It is not Verbier's own skiing, and we do not count it as such. Zermatt's area figure has a measurement behind it: the Matterhorn area, with Cervinia over the border, comes to 322 kilometres by our count, against 360 quoted, though the Italian side needs the International pass.

Verbier does have the longer single descent. The longest piste we measure there is a 7.3 kilometre red with 1,055 metres of vertical. Zermatt's longest, the Matterhorn run, is a 3.8 kilometre red with 490. If one huge run home is what you dream about, that is a Verbier point. If a week of new runs matters more, it is Zermatt's.

Altitude: Zermatt is higher at every level

Zermatt's village is 120 metres higher, at 1,620 metres against Verbier's 1,500. The gap grows as you climb. Zermatt's skiing tops out at 3,869 metres by our measure, the joint highest of the 55 resorts we cover, level with Cervinia, which shares its top. Verbier's reaches 3,283, the third highest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, and 586 metres lower.

The figure that matters most is the middle of the mountain. Half of Zermatt's piste is above 2,634 metres. Half of Verbier's is above 2,131, which is 503 metres lower. Put another way, 85 percent of Zermatt's piste sits above 2,200 metres, against 41 percent of Verbier's.

Both are snow sure on our measure. At Zermatt, 99 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, the joint third largest share of the 55, up to 3,869 metres at the top station it shares with Cervinia. At Verbier it is 84 percent, up to 3,283. Nobody can promise snow, but Zermatt has a good deal more margin, and its glacier runs all year, where Verbier's season is December to April. For a week after Easter, that settles it.

The skiing: level where you would not expect it

Both reputations rest on skiing away from the marked runs, and on our numbers they are level there. Verbier has 26 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary and Zermatt 23, the second and third most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. Verbier's big mountain name is renewed every season on the Bec des Rosses, which hosts the finale of the freeride world tour. Zermatt has serious off piste and touring of its own, and at both the sensible way in is with a guide.

Who each one actually suits

Verbier suits groups who want big days and bigger nights. The après begins up the mountain in the afternoon and carries on down into the village, the centre is busy from sundown, and the clubs run late. Confident intermediates and better get the most from the mountain. Families with teenagers do well, and younger children are better off on the sunny Savoleyres side, the gentler corner. Stay in the centre for the nightlife, at Médran by the main gondola to be first up the hill, or in Le Hameau for calm and space. It is not the place for early nights.

Zermatt suits people who want the place to be part of the holiday: the car free streets, the Matterhorn from the lunch table, a day over the border in Cervinia. Mixed groups and intermediates cruise its long reds, strong skiers go off piste with a guide, and families relax with no traffic about. The evenings are sociable but composed, more a drink at dusk than dancing on tables. Most beds are a walk or an electric taxi ride from the lifts.

Gentle at both, in different places

If neither is steep, the useful question is where each one is gentle. The measured gradients are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so they describe how a week feels rather than any one run.

Verbier is gentle at the easy end. Its blues average 11.5 percent, the gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover, and 48 percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, the joint largest share of the 55, level with Les Arcs. Its reds, at 20.2 percent, sit right on the Swiss average of 19.9.

Zermatt is gentle in the middle. Its blues average 13.8 percent, and its reds 17.2, with only one of the 55 resorts we cover gentler. It also has far more red: 71 percent of its piste, against 49 percent at Verbier.

So a group who mostly ski blue will be happiest at Verbier, where blue is about as soft as it gets. A group of confident intermediates who live on red will cover more ground, more easily, at Zermatt.