Cervinia
This is Italy’s most snow-sure resort in the lee of what the Italians call Monte Cervino, better known to the rest of the world as the Matterhorn. Its high altitude – 2,050m in the village and 3,480m at the top lift station – means that top to bottom snow is virtually guaranteed throughout a long season that runs from November to the beginning of May. It’s also open for summer glacier skiing and snowboarding, as well as for weekends in October.
This is far from being the prettiest resort in the Alps. Cervinia and the linked village of Valtournenche provide a wonderful snow-sports playground, dictated by the easy gradient of the seemingly never-ending slopes. These allow beginners and wobbly intermediates to gain enormous confidence in an extensive high-mountain area.
It is possiblecross the frontier into Switzerland for the linked and more demanding slopes of Zermatt, reached from the far side of the Klein Matterhorn mountain (known as Little Matterhorn, in reference to its larger neighbour 7km away) up on the glacier at the top of the lifts in Zermatt.
However, it’s important to keep an eye on the clock – and the weather. When the clouds roll in and the wind gets up, the link between the resorts can close without warning and it’s also a long journey home on lifts and pistes from the far corners of the Swiss resort. If you do get stuck in Zermatt, it’s better stay in a bed and breakfat for the night than pay for the taxi journey home – it takes around six hours to get back to Cervinia by road.