Best ski resorts for freeride

At 2,300 m, no village in Europe sits higher, and few hold their snow this dependably. Val Thorens is the roof of Les 3 Vallées, the world's largest linked ski area, and the lifts keep turning from late November to early May.

Off-piste in every direction, a World Cup pedigree, and 300 km of pistes shared with Tignes across the Espace Killy. Val d'Isère earns its reputation on the steep faces of Solaise and in the wild bowl of Le Fornet.

Ski to your door in any of four altitude villages, from 1600 to 2000 m. Les Arcs wrote the book on ski-in/ski-out, and the Vanoise Express cable car stitches it to La Plagne to form the giant Paradiski domain.

Few places ski as hard or party as hard. St. Anton gave the world the Arlberg technique, and its après-ski temples, the MooserWirt and Krazy Kanguruh, are as legendary as its punishing black runs.

The only resort in the Alps where you can ski every single day of the year, Hintertux climbs to a 3250 m glacier at the head of the Zillertal. Snow-sure, high and a serious freeride draw.

Damuls sits at 1,430 m high in the Bregenzerwald in Vorarlberg, often advertised as the snowiest village in the world with around 9 m of average annual snowfall. Linked with Mellau for 110 km of mostly open, above-the-tree-line piste, it stays family by day and quietly serious for freeride by morning.

Freeriders make the pilgrimage here for the Xtreme and the merciless Tortin couloir. Verbier sits at the top of the 4 Vallées, Switzerland's largest domain, and the nightlife matches the terrain for sheer intensity.

A sleepy garrison town turned freeride darling, now linked to Sedrun and Disentis for 180 km of terrain. Andermatt catches the most reliable snowfall in central Switzerland, and The Chedi rewrote what luxury means here.

Home to one of the largest skiable glaciers in Europe, Les Deux Alpes guarantees snow on top and serves up a famously big party at the bottom. Summer skiing too, when the glacier reopens for freestyle camps.

Stuben am Arlberg is a tiny Vorarlberg hamlet at 1,407 m on Ski Arlberg, at 305 km the biggest interconnected ski area in Austria. This is the village where Hannes Schneider opened the Arlberg's first ski school, and the Albonabahn climbs straight from the door into one of the best off-piste sectors in the Alps.

Røldal is the snowiest ski area in Norway, a small coastal-mountain pocket that catches Atlantic storms head-on and often records more than 10 m of annual snowfall. 17 km of marked piste run on the Røldalsfjellet sector, but the real draw is the freeride terrain off Reinanuten and Reinaknuten. It sits less than three hours from Bergen.

Mont Blanc looms over everything here, and so does the history. Chamonix is the birthplace of alpinism: five separate ski areas, the mythical Vallée Blanche off-piste descent, and glacier skiing that never really stops.