Germany's highest mountain
At 2,962 m (survey value 2,962.06 m above the Amsterdam datum) the Zugspitze is the highest point of Germany. Its prominence is 1,746 m, measured down to the Fernpass (1,216 m), and the nearest higher summit is the Zwölferkogel in the Stubai Alps, 25.8 km away. The mountain is built of pale Wetterstein limestone from the Triassic, with walls up to 800 m high. It once had a third, higher point: the original west summit, 2,964 m, was blasted away in 1938 to make room for buildings, which is why the summit today is a mix of rock, cable-car stations, terraces and the Münchner Haus.
From the top the view reaches some 400 peaks in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Below the summit to the south-west spreads the Zugspitzplatt, a karst plateau at around 2,000–2,700 m with the ski area, the Sonnalpin restaurant and the remains of the Schneeferner glacier. Around 3,750 years ago a huge rockfall from the north face crashed down towards the Eibsee; geologists think the mountain may have been more than 3,000 m high before it.
Getting there
The German side is reached from Garmisch-Partenkirchen (708 m), the 1936 Winter Olympics town, with hourly regional trains to Munich; Munich airport is about an hour and a half by road and Innsbruck about an hour. The Austrian side starts from Ehrwald in Tyrol. There are three ways up without walking:
- Seilbahn Zugspitze from the Eibsee (opened December 2017, replacing the Eibsee cable car of 1963). It covers 4,467 m with a height difference of 1,945 m, the world record for a single-section aerial tramway; its single steel support tower is 127 m high, and the longest free span is 3,213 m. Each cabin carries 120 people, and the ride takes about 10 minutes.
- Bayerische Zugspitzbahn, a metre-gauge cogwheel railway opened in 1929–1930. It runs 19.5 km from Garmisch through Grainau and the Eibsee, then in a 4.5 km tunnel to the Zugspitzplatt station (2,588 m); the trip takes about 75 minutes. From the plateau the Gletscherbahn cable car climbs the last 348 m in about 4 minutes.
- Tiroler Zugspitzbahn from Ehrwald-Obermoos (1,225 m). First opened on 5 July 1926 to a station below the summit, it was rebuilt in 1989–1991 to reach the top directly: 3,600 m long, cabins for 100 people, about 10 minutes.
A round-trip ticket on the German side costs €78 for adults, €62.50 for 16–18-year-olds and €39 for children 6–15 (summer 2026, valid to 22 November 2026); one way costs €46, which is what most hikers buy for the descent. The Tyrolean cable car charges €66 for an adult return and €43 one way (summer 2026). In summer the Seilbahn Zugspitze runs 8:00–17:45, in the rest of the year 8:30–16:45, with the last ascent 30 minutes before closing; the last train up leaves Garmisch at 14:15. Check closures: the railways shut for maintenance on several weeks in November.
Routes to the summit
Reintal (the easiest route). The classic walk starts at the Olympic ski stadium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (about 730 m) and goes through the Partnachklamm gorge, 720 m long and up to 80 m deep, then up the Reintal valley past the Bockhütte (1,052 m) to the Reintalangerhütte (1,366 m; 20 beds and 70 dormitory places, late May to the third weekend of October). Just above the hut the Partnach springs from the rock at about 1,440 m. A steep path climbs out of the valley to the Knorrhütte (2,051 m; 34 beds and 74 dormitory places, late May to early October), then crosses the stony Zugspitzplatt past the Sonnalpin to the final steep, partly cable-protected section to the summit. The official figures are 21 km and about 2,300 m of gain; the walk takes 8–10 hours, so most people spend a night at one of the two huts. Technically it is the easiest way up, but it is long, and snow lingers on the plateau well into summer.
Höllental (via ferrata and glacier). From Hammersbach (about 760 m) the path enters the Höllentalklamm, a gorge about 700 m long with walls 150 m high, opened in 1905 with a series of rock tunnels (the gorge path charges an entrance fee; the Stangensteig above it is free). After about 2 hours you reach the Höllentalangerhütte (1,387 m), rebuilt in 2013–2015 and open from late May to mid-October. Above it come a ladder of iron rungs on a slab and the famous Brett, a traverse on pegs across a smooth wall, then the Höllentalferner glacier and the bergschrund where glacier meets rock — a notorious bottleneck with regular queues. The final via ferrata to the summit is graded C, mostly B/C. Expect about 9 km and 2,200 m of gain, 7–10 hours in total. You need a via ferrata set, helmet, crampons and ice axe, and on a snow-covered glacier crevasse-rescue gear: this is the most interesting route and the one that most often goes wrong.
Stopselzieher from the Austrian side. From the Eibsee or Ehrwald a path climbs the Gamskar to the Wiener-Neustädter-Hütte (2,209 m), the first hut ever built on the Zugspitze (1884). From there the Stopselzieher ("corkscrew") via ferrata, named after its twisting gully, gains about 600 m to the summit in 2.5–3 hours. It is graded A/B, the easiest of the protected routes and the fastest way up, but it is steep, and in early June the cables are often buried in snow, so crampons are needed. Accidents happen here every year. Total figures from the Eibsee: about 8 km and 2,015 m of gain.
Jubiläumsgrat. The ridge between the Zugspitze and the Hochblassen, partly fitted with cables by the Munich section of the Alpine Club in 1909–1915, is one of the great ridge traverses of the Eastern Alps: about 5–8 km of mostly unprotected climbing up to grade III, usually done in one long day of 7–9 hours from the summit to the Alpspitze cable car. It is for experienced mountaineers only.
Without climbing at all you can walk on the Zugspitzplatt in summer, visit the chapel, or walk round the Eibsee at the foot of the mountain (about 8 km).
Huts and the summit
The Münchner Haus (2,959 m), opened in 1897, is the highest mountain hut in the German Alps, with 30 beds from mid-May to late September; it also has Germany's highest postbox and the country's highest photovoltaic plant. Next to the stations are the restaurants Panorama 2962 on the summit and Gletscher 2600 and Sonnalpin on the plateau, plus an exhibition at the top of the Tyrolean cable car on the history of the railway. The gilded cross stands on the east summit, reached from the terrace by a short protected scramble. With half a million visitors a year by train and cable car, the terraces fill quickly on fine summer days; arrive with the first cars or late in the afternoon for a quieter summit.
Winter and the glacier ski area
On the Zugspitzplatt the ski season usually runs from late November to early May (for 2026/27 from 27 November to 2 May), with about 20 km of pistes on natural snow, lifts on the plateau, toboggan runs and an igloo village where you can spend a night. The plateau is the only part of the mountain that is easy in winter; the walking routes become serious ski-touring and mountaineering terrain.
When to go and weather
The summit is cold all year. The 1961–1990 average is −4.8 °C; even July and August average only 2.2 °C, and February −11.4 °C. Frost occurs on about 310 days a year, and August 2024 was the first month on record without a single frost day. The summit has recorded −35.6 °C (14 February 1940), 17.9 °C (5 July 1957), a gust of 335 km/h (12 June 1985) and a snow depth of 7.8 m (April 1980). About 2,000 mm of precipitation falls a year.
For hiking routes the season is July to September: huts open from late May, but in June snow often still covers the upper sections and the Stopselzieher cables. Summer afternoons bring thunderstorms; start early, and plan to reach the summit well before the last cable car down.
Water
The summit has restaurants and the Münchner Haus selling drinks, and on the Reintal and Höllental routes the staffed huts (Reintalangerhütte, Knorrhütte, Höllentalangerhütte) sell water and drinks in season. The Reintal follows the Partnach for most of its length, but stream water should be treated. Above the huts there is no reliable water: on the Höllental climb, the plateau and the Stopselzieher carry at least 1.5–2 litres from the last hut, more on a hot day — the gain is long, and the climbing above the glacier is slow.
Mobile coverage and internet
On the summit and the plateau, with their stations and restaurants, you can usually expect a signal (radio relay equipment has worked on the top since 1948); right on the border your phone may switch between German and Austrian networks, so check roaming if you come from outside the EU. In the deep valleys and gorges — the Höllentalklamm, parts of the Reintal and the Partnachklamm — reception is unreliable. The emergency number is 112 on both sides of the border; in Austria the mountain rescue can also be called on 140. Carry a charged phone and a downloaded map.
Dangers and safety
The Zugspitze is easy to underestimate because of the crowds on the summit. Weather changes fast: in July 2008 two runners in the Zugspitze extreme mountain race died of exhaustion and hypothermia after a sudden drop in temperature. On the Höllental route the danger is the glacier — crevasses when snow-covered, bare ice at about 30° in late summer — and stonefall and congestion at the bergschrund; the Höllentalferner lost more than half its volume between 2009 and 2018, and the transition from ice to rock changes every year. The Stopselzieher and the Jubiläumsgrat see regular accidents. Hikers arriving late can miss the last cable car and must then either stay at the Münchner Haus (if there is room) or descend on foot. In the Bavarian Alps mountain rescue is provided by the Bergwacht, in Tyrol by the Bergrettung.
History and name
The name probably comes from the Zugbahnen, the avalanche tracks that sweep down its flanks in winter. The first recorded ascent was made on 27 August 1820 by the Bavarian army surveyor Lieutenant Josef Naus, his assistant Maier and the mountain guide Johann Georg Tauschl, who reached the west summit at about 11:45 by the west ridge from the Schneeferner, after scouting the Reintal a month earlier; a thunderstorm and snow drove them straight down. The east summit was reached in 1822, and the first ascent from Austria came in 1837.
In August 1851 the parish priest Christoph Ott, who disliked seeing the mountain "bare and unadorned", had 28 porters carry up a gilded iron cross in 28 parts, 14 feet high, at a cost of 610 guilders. It was moved from the west to the east summit in 1882. American soldiers shot at it at the end of the war in 1945; in 1993 it was replaced by a 4.88 m replica, and the original went to the Werdenfels Museum. The cross was regilded in 2009, damaged by a crane during the cable-car construction and by a storm in 2019, and taken down again in November 2025 to clear thousands of visitors' stickers and renew the gold leaf.
The border over the summit was fixed in 1766 and confirmed in 1844; the popular story that Emperor Franz Joseph gave the east summit to his cousin Ludwig in 1854 is a legend. Free crossing of the border on the summit was allowed in 1995.
Interesting facts
- Germany's two last real glaciers lie here: the Northern Schneeferner and the Höllentalferner. The Southern Schneeferner lost its glacier status in September 2022, and the Northern Schneeferner, 103 ha at the end of the 19th century, was down to 9.4 ha by the end of 2025.
- The chapel of Mariä Heimsuchung on the plateau, Germany's highest church, was consecrated in October 1981 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI.
- The weather station on the summit has been recording since 1900; its first observer, Josef Enzensperger, spent the winter at the top.
- The Schneefernerhaus below the summit has its own postcode, 82475.
- In 1922 Franz Hailer landed an aircraft on the Schneeferner, and in 1927 Ernst Udet launched a glider from the mountain.
- Lead and zinc ore was mined in the Höllental from 1827 to 1918.
FAQ
How high is the Zugspitze? 2,962 m (2,962.06 m by survey), the highest point of Germany; its prominence is 1,746 m.
How long does it take to climb the Zugspitze? The Reintal route takes 8–10 hours (21 km, about 2,300 m of gain), so most people take two days with a night at the Reintalangerhütte or Knorrhütte. The Höllental takes 7–10 hours; the Stopselzieher about 2.5–3 hours from the Wiener-Neustädter-Hütte. The cable car from the Eibsee takes about 10 minutes.
How difficult is it? The Reintal is a long but technically easy hike with a protected final section. The Stopselzieher is a steep A/B via ferrata, the Höllental a C via ferrata with a glacier crossing that needs crampons and ice axe. The Jubiläumsgrat is for experienced climbers.
How much does the cable car cost? On the German side €78 return and €46 one way for adults (summer 2026); the Tyrolean Zugspitzbahn from Ehrwald costs €66 return and €43 one way.
Is there water on the way? Yes, the staffed huts sell drinks in season, and the summit has restaurants. Above the last hut there is no reliable water: carry 1.5–2 litres, and treat stream water.
Is there mobile phone coverage? Yes on the summit and the plateau, often switching between German and Austrian networks; in the gorges and deep valleys it is unreliable. Call 112 (in Austria also 140 for mountain rescue).
When is the best time to climb? July to September. In June snow often still covers the upper routes; from late November the plateau becomes a ski area.
Do I need a guide? No, there is no permit or guide requirement, but for the Höllental with its glacier or the Jubiläumsgrat a certified mountain guide is a sensible choice if you lack experience.