Hi Everyone, I am travelling to Fussen next week and we are hoping to climb Zugspitze. The problem is we will need to be in Garmish early in the morning and cant work out the best way to get there, also we cant find an English speaking map for the route up the mountain either! Can anyone help? Even just to know this is all easy, if there are maps available in the village of Fussen? Thanks already! Claire from Northern Ireland.
Posted by
Sammamish, WA
403 posts
Well, climbing the Zugspitze won't be easy! It is a serious mountain, as I assume you know already. A good place to start is here: http://www.summitpost.org/zugspitze/150322 Complete mountain info, lots of helpful links. The sites lists the proper topo maps you would need to climb the mountain as well as links to recommended transportation. This is not a typical day hike sort of thing, so it's not like the TI in Fussen will have the maps you would need. You need to go prepared with the proper gear, maps, equipment, etc. Some of the via ferrata sections look amazing! Personally, I'm sticking with the cable car, but I'm impressed that you are thinking of climbing it.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
How early do you want to get to Garmisch-Partenkirchen? There is an RVO bus connection leaving Füssen at 5:30, with changes in Steingaden and at Echelsbacher Brücke, arriving at the GaP Bahnhof at 7:30. Or, you can take a bus from Füssen at 8:00 to Reutte and the train from there to GaP Bahnhof at 9:59. You can find these schedules on the German Rail (Bahn) website. The route by train from Reutte has stops at Ehrwald, at the base of the Zugspitze in Austria, and at Untergrainau. These might be more appropriate starting points for your climb. If you take this route, you can use a Bayern-Ticket for the train, but it does not cover the Austrian part of the bus from Füssen to Reutte. If you take the bus connection via Echelsbacher Brücke, you can use a Bayern-Ticket for the bus and also for the Zugspitzebahn from GaP Bhf to Grainau Bhf.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
If your goal is to hike to the summit, it's too early in the year. The trails are still impassable above the alpine level. Even with the heat-wave we had last week, plenty of snow still remains. I don't think you specifically need an English map. It's just a matter of finding the trail head and following it. But as I mentioned, you will come to an impasse at a certain elevation. You might be able to purchase a terrain map in Füssen. If not, they are definately available in GaP.
Posted by
Palo Alto, California, United States
12 posts
As of 2 weeks ago, I assure you it is totally snow covered at the visitors center and on the tram to the summit. Actually very pretty seeing the transition from forest to rocky, snow-covered peaks. At the summit, we actually had sleet falling around 13:00.
Posted by
OP
belfast, county dow, Northern Ireland
2 posts
Hi guys. thanks for all your replies. Unfortunately it looks like we wont be able to climb after all as we were planning for next week, 4,5 or 6th July. Yes we do realise it is a 'proper' mountain! We have ran out of mountains to climb in GB and Ireland! Will bring our hiking gear just incase there is another heat wave, I didn't realise the weather was even that good at the minute. Will check out the printable maps later on and maybe print just incase. Thanks again, still looking forward to our trip but disappointed we wont be staying in the Knorr Hutte etc.