The largest ski areas in the world

The largest ski resorts in the world are mainly in the Alps

runway size can be an important factor when choosing the destination of your stay in the ski. Some ski resorts have joined forces to connect all their tracks, creating some of the major ski areas of France, Europe and even the world. While some will prefer small stations where calm prevails over the size of the domain, others will favour stations where a huge choice of trails is offered to them.

It is difficult to say precisely what is the largest ski area because most resorts (except in Canada and the United States) translate their size according to the length of their slopes rather than their actual area. In addition, some stations take off-track account while others do not calculate the length of their tracks in the same way.

So we made two rankings. The first indicates the major ski areas in the world according to the official data provided by the stations. The second class ranks the stations according to the data recorded for several years by German consultant Christoph Schrahe. You will see that these two rankings are completely different but give a good overview of the largest stations in the world.

The largest ski resorts in the world – Figures published

1. The Portes du Soleil (France-Switzerland), 650 km of slopes 2. The 3 Valleys (France), 600 km 3. The Four Valleys (Switzerland), 412 km 4. Via Lattea (Italy-France), 400 km 5. Zermatt-Cervinia (Switzerland-Italy), 360 km 6. The Sybelles (France), 310 km 7. Killy area ( Val d’Isère -Tignes (France), 300 km 8. SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental (Austria), 280 km 9. The Great Massif (France), 265 km 10. Big Sky Resort (United States), 250 km 11. Serre Chevalier (France), 250 km 12. Alpe d’Huez (France), 249 km 13. Ischgl-Samnaun (Silvretta Arena) (Austria-Switzerland), 238 km 14. Snowmass (United States), 237 km 15. Megève (France), 235 km 16. Arosa-Lenzerheide (Switzerland), 225 km 17. La Plagne (Paradiski) (France), 225 km 18. Les Deux Alpes (France), 225 km 19. Laax-Flims-Falera (Switzerland), 220 km 20. Grandvalira (Andorra), 210 km

The largest ski resorts – Actual figures

However, therefore, the consultant and writer Christoph Schrahe measures the slopes in a more obvious way, taking from a point A to a point B to arrive at a correct number, while the ski resorts use many tricks to swell the length of their slopes and their fields (by an average of 34%). Here is an overview of the classification:

1. The 3 Valleys (France), 493 km 2. The Portes du Soleil (France-Switzerland), 425 km 3. Paradiski (France), 378 km 4. Sella Ronda (Italy), 309 km 5. Matterhorn Ski Paradise (Switzerland-Italy), 252 km

Ski areas that inflate the most their numbers

The survey also reveals the most exaggerated ski resorts on the ski kilometers offered to skiers (published km / real km / % exaggeration)

1. St Moritz-Celerina (Switzerland), 163km/64km/ +156% 2. The 4 Valleys (Switzerland), 412km/164km/ +151% 3. Monterosa Ski (Italy), 180km/73km/ +146% 4. Isola 2000 (France), 120km/54km/ +123% 5. The Sybelles (France), 310km/141km/ +120%

And here are those that exaggerate the least (published km / real km / % exaggeration):

1. Vier Berge Skischaukel (Austria), 121km/131km/ -8% 2. Kitzbühel (Austria), 164km/164km/ 0% 3. Lech/Zürs 122km/118km/ +3% 4. Diamant space (France), 185km/178km/ +4% 5. Baqueira-Beret (Spain), 131km/124km/ +6%

Source: « The list of the world’s 50 largest ski areas » by Christoph Schrahe, Ski Weltweit / Montenius Consult