High-altitude ski resorts: snow you can count on

Altitude is the best snow insurance there is: at 2,000 m the air is on average 6 °C colder than at 1,000 m, snow falls instead of rain and it stays. We kept the resorts whose village itself sits above 1,500 m — you click into your skis at the foot of your accommodation, with no shuttle or access gondola — and whose ski area goes beyond 2,500 m.

The 33 resorts selected break down as follows: Northern Alps (22), Southern Alps (9), Pyrenees (2). The table gives the skiable vertical, often more telling than the top altitude alone: a big vertical means long descents and a tiered ski area that stays skiable in any weather.

The flip side of altitude: resorts that are built rather than villages, a sometimes biting cold in January, and lift passes generally among the most expensive. For a cheap holiday or a resort with character, see the “cheap skiing” and “beginners” guides instead.