Each ski area gets a rating out of 10 from three factors, all from published data: the lift pass price, an estimate of how reliable its snow is, and the size of the ski area. Each factor is scored from 0 to 10 and weighted as shown.
The weights below are the defaults. On the home page, under What matters to you?, you can change how much each factor counts, for example to put snow or cost first, and the ranking and map colours follow your choice.
- Lift pass cost: 35%
- The published price of an adult 6-day pass for the whole ski area, compared with other ski areas’ prices for the same season. The cheapest scores 10 and the most expensive 0.
- Snow: 35%
- Estimated from altitude, not from snow reports or forecasts. The higher a ski area’s highest village, the more reliable its snow tends to be: 1,000 m or lower scores 0 and 2,200 m or higher scores 10. We plan to replace this with historical snow-depth data.
- Ski area size: 30%
- The kilometres of marked pistes the ski area publishes, across everything linked by lifts, so smaller ski areas rate lower. 20 km or less scores 0 and 500 km or more scores 10. Each doubling in size adds the same amount, so going from 50 to 100 km counts for as much as going from 250 to 500 km. Ski areas measure their pistes in different ways, so treat the figures as a guide.
Not rated yet
- Accommodation availability and prices aren’t rated, because we don’t have a live source for them yet. Each ski area’s page links to booking sites to check your dates.
- How many places to stay are listed isn’t rated either, although cards show the count. The official directories we use cover countries very differently (Austria’s includes holiday flats, France’s only classified hotels and residences, and we have none for Germany yet), so the counts would mostly compare the directories, not the ski areas.
- Weather isn’t part of the rating yet, because we don’t have a weather data source.
Missing data and colours
- If a ski area has no data for a factor (for example no lift pass price yet), that factor’s weight is shared out among the others, and the ski area’s card shows a dash instead of a score for it. If the factors with data make up less than 50% of the weight, the ski area isn’t rated.
- The colours rank the rated ski areas against each other, in thirds: top third (green), middle third (amber) and bottom third (red). Ski areas with the same rating share the better colour. Changing what matters to you re-ranks them, so the colours change with the ratings.
- Lift pass prices are compared between ski areas, so a rating shows how a ski area compares with the others here, not an absolute judgement. Sponsored or paid placement plays no part.