Ski resort comparisons: head-to-head
Six side-by-side ski resort matchups: where each one wins and who should pick which.
Two Swiss legends, two very different moods. Zermatt is the car-free pilgrimage at the foot of the Matterhorn, all wood balconies and electric taxis. St. Moritz is the Engadin's old-money playground, where polo on a frozen lake feels normal. Pick your fairytale.
North America's biggest by acreage, against North America's most powerful brand. Whistler Blackcomb stretches across two coastal peaks under Pacific snow. Vail rolls back from its Bavarian village into the legendary Back Bowls. Both are huge. Only one will fit you.
Two high-altitude French monsters that take very different attitudes to the mountain. Val Thorens is the highest ski village in Europe, a pure ski machine with a famous afterparty. Tignes is a lakefront cluster under the Grande Motte glacier, beloved of freeriders. Pick your altitude tribe.
The two faces of Japanese skiing. Niseko is the deepest powder address on the planet, on Hokkaido, with a base built for foreign skiers. Hakuba Happo-One is the steeper Olympic resort in the Japanese Alps, just 3 hours from Tokyo. Same country, two very different trips.
Two of the original Alpine pilgrimages, each marked by an iconic peak. Chamonix sits at the foot of Mont Blanc, with a freeride pedigree and a hard mountaineering soul. Zermatt is the polished car-free shrine to the Matterhorn. Same mountain range, two opposite temperaments.
Two Colorado titans, two attitudes. Aspen Snowmass spreads four very different mountains around a silver-mining town turned art destination. Vail is a single, massive resort built from scratch in 1962, Bavarian by design and Epic Pass flagship by ambition. Old money, new money, same state.