Garmisch - zugspitze

I can't find the summer schedule for the Zugspitzebahn, but I doubt you have enough time. Depending on how late the cable car operates in summer, you MAY have time to do it in the late afternoon, if you can get to the cable car station at Grainau (or Eibsee, I don't remember which). But I doubt it. Not a chance the following morning.

Hoping to do it in the afternoon - thought with summer hours we might just luck out and get up there.
Thanks for the info!

You can find the schedules to/from the top of the Zugspitze here. The cable car (Sielbahn) is the fastest way to the top, but it starts at Eibsee. It runs from 8 AM to 4:45 PM. The last car to the top would be at 4:15, but you'd only have 10 minutes at the top. If you were at Eibsee at 8 AM, you could ascend and spend some time at the top before having to descend. There is a train from Garmisch to Eibsee, but its operating hours don't fit your schedule. The last train of the day (to Eibsee) leaves Garmisch at 3:15 PM. The first train from Eibsee to Garmisch gets to Garmisch station at 10:50. BTW, for the few dates I checked, I didn't see any conveyance (train or bus) leaving Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bahnhof before 11:00. (There was an ICE to Hamburg leaving at 10:39 on a Saturday.)

Starting at 4:00 you should have time to ride the Alpspitzbahn and walk to the AlpspiX viewing platform: http://www.zugspitze.de/en/summer/berg/garmisch-classic/alpspix.htm I believe the last ride down is at 5:30, so don't miss that or it is a long walk down. Edit: note that this in on eh alpspitze, not the Zugspitze.

Also, no bus service to Eibsee. So, it doesn't look like ascending the Zugspitze will work for your schedule. And of course, even if you had a little more time, the notoriously fickle Alpine weather could just have easily scuttled your plan.