Ski Resorts Ranked: Courchevel 1850, St. Moritz, and Aspen in the Ultra-Luxury Tier

Courchevel 1850 — the top village of the Trois Vallées ski domain, the largest linked ski area in the world — is, by the metrics of ultra-luxury hospitality, the most remarkable ski resort on earth. The concentration of five-star palace hotels in a single mountain village is without parallel: Les Airelles (a member of the Leading Hotels of the World and, by most assessments, the finest mountain hotel in the world), the Cheval Blanc Courchevel (the LVMH property whose hospitality credentials are as impeccable as its architecture), Le K2 Palace (a Chalets 1850 property whose spa and culinary programme compete with the best in the Alps), and L'Apogée Courchevel (Oetker Collection, 24 rooms, the most intimate property of the group) all operate within a five-minute walk of each other. This density of quality has no equivalent in the ski world.

St. Moritz, in the Engadin valley of the Swiss canton of Graubünden, offers a different proposition. Where Courchevel's luxury is concentrated and accessible, St. Moritz's is distributed across a broader social geography: the Badrutt's Palace (the 137-year-old grande dame of Swiss mountain hospitality, whose guest history encompasses virtually every significant figure of the 20th century); the Carlton Hotel, a Belmond property of particular elegance; the Kulm Hotel (the oldest hotel in St. Moritz, operating since 1855, and the site of the first-ever curling competition in 1880). The skiing at St. Moritz is good rather than exceptional — the Corviglia and Diavolezza areas are diverse and well-maintained, but they do not compare to the scale and terrain variety of the Trois Vallées. What St. Moritz offers in addition to the skiing is a social infrastructure of particular intensity: the Polo World Cup on Snow (January), the White Turf horse racing on the frozen lake (February), the Cresta Run (a toboggan track of legendary danger and exclusivity open only to members and their guests), and the particular social world that has gathered in this valley for three generations of wealthy Europeans.

Aspen, Colorado — specifically the mountains of Aspen Mountain (Ajax), Aspen Highlands, Snowmass, and Buttermilk, which together form the Aspen Skiing Company's portfolio — represents the American expression of ultra-luxury mountain resort culture. Its social infrastructure has been discussed elsewhere in this publication; from a purely skiing perspective, it offers terrain of exceptional quality and variety, from the steep mogul runs of the upper mountain (Aspen Mountain's Walsh's, Krinkle Face, and the Dumps are technical challenges of the highest order) to the intermediate slopes of Snowmass (the largest of the four mountains, best suited to families and groups of mixed ability). The après-ski and social programming — the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, the Aspen Music Festival, the Aspen Ideas Festival — extends the resort's appeal across all four seasons and justifies property prices that rival those of the finest European ski villages.