Resort Comparisons
Compare Ski Resorts in EuropeResort statistics can sometimes tell a thousand words about a skiing destination, but unlike North American resorts, most of the European ski resorts aren’t obsessed with stats. It’s often difficult to find reliable information, and various sources or websites report contradictory statistics.
Our
European resort statistics document provides a detailed comparison of ski resorts across Europe. This includes the vertical, lift ticket prices, mix of terrain for different ability levels, and the size of the resorts.
Annual SnowfallEuropean resorts typically don’t readily report statistics such as average annual snowfall. The potential reason for this is that they don’t want to highlight that there isn’t much snowfall when compared to other parts of the world?! At many of the resorts, it’s a case of luck for powderhounds to be there on a powder day. Thankfully due to high altitude, the snow that does fall tends to remain in good condition, and many resorts use snowmaking to top up the cover.
Europe Skiing VerticalThe ski resorts in Europe are renowned for having super long vertical with endless runs that burn the thighs. It’s almost laughable when Canadian and USA resorts boast the longest, or second or third longest vertical in North America considering that it is just a fraction of some of the resorts in Europe. Whistler has 1,600 metres of vertical, yet
Chamonix in France has 2,800 metres and Zermatt in Switzerland has 2,200 metres. And when you compare the European vertical to Japan, Australia and New Zealand, then the contrast is really significant.
Size of ResortsIt’s difficult to compare the size of the ski resorts in Europe to those in the rest of the world. Whilst other continents typically report the skiable terrain in hectares (or acres), the Europeans indicate size by reporting the total length of piste trails in kilometres. This of course doesn’t provide any indication of the size of the off-piste skiing terrain.
Large European resorts include
St Anton,
Lech/Zurs, Zermatt, St Moritz,
Verbier, and
Sestriere (Via Lattea). In addition to many medium sized resorts, there are also many tiny resorts scattered across Europe.
Interlinked ResortsMany resorts claim that they are interlinked with others, but the definition of “interlinked” can vary somewhat. Some resorts are truly interlinked via the piste and lifts such as St Anton, St Christoph and Stuben. Others will share a common lift pass, but the resorts are only interlinked via buses. An example would be the Jungfrau region around Interlaken, Switzerland. Some resorts are completely stand-alone and don’t offer much variety of terrain.
Our
resort comparison document provides some comments regarding which resorts are interlinked and whether this means lift linked, bus linked, or just common lift tickets.
What’s In a Name?When planning a snow holiday, figuring out what the name of ski destination actually means seems much more complicated in Europe than other continents. The well known ski destination names may not necessarily refer to a resort, as it commonly does in Japan and Canada. The place name may refer to an actual resort, or alternatively it may be an area made up of small resorts, or a village or town near ski fields.For example,
Chamonix in France isn’t actually a resort but rather a series of smaller resorts.
The Dolomites in Italy refers to a region not a resort.
Innsbruck in Austria is a city where there is no actual skiing, but the city is surrounded by many small ski resorts that can be accessed by bus. It can get a bit confusing!
Ski RunsThe piste skiing in Europe is quite different to North America and other parts of the world. Typically most European resorts only have a small proportion of black runs, so most of the advanced skiing is off-piste. This can be difficult for strong intermediate skiers who want to progress on steep groomed slopes and not tackle the potentially gnarly off-piste conditions.The colour codes of the runs also vary from that in Canada, US, New Zealand and Australia.
In Europe the following applies:
• blue run – beginner
• red run – intermediate
• black run – advanced
However some resorts also have green runs just to really confuse everyone:
• green run – beginner
• blue run – intermediate
• red run – advanced
• black run – expert (equivalent of a double black diamond run)
There is very little consistency between resorts as to what a coloured run equates to, and the colours are more of an indication of relativities within that particular resort.
Tree SkiingAnother difference with skiing in Europe when compared to that of Canada, USA and Australia, is that much of it is above the tree-line (similar to New Zealand and parts of South America). If you’re used to the piste being defined by areas that are tree-less, it takes a little getting used to. The advantages of open skiing are that you can put in a turn wherever you feel like it and you don’t have the risk of running into a tree. The disadvantage is that you can’t go tree-skiing (obviously!), but in addition to this, trees help with orientation and visibility on low light days and afford protection from the weather.
Insurance & Lift TicketsWhen purchasing a lift ticket you may want to take out the option of insurance. It is often inclusive in other continents, but in Europe it generally isn’t. Ski patrol rescue is not necessarily free, even if an accident occurs on the piste. Check what is included in the price of a lift ticket.
The price of lift tickets at various resorts is not well publicised. However the resorts don’t appear to hiding anything as the lift ticket prices are not unreasonable. See our resort comparison document for more information on lift ticket prices.