On the Zugspitze

There is a lake in Bavaria called Lake Eibsee. On a fine day, standing by the lake gives you a breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains. One peak rises especially high; it is rugged, full of crevices and steep slopes. Its summit is permanently covered in snow and ice.

This is the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain. It is 2,962 metres high. The Zugspitze is one of the peaks in the Wetterstein range, a mountain range on the northern edge of the Alps. A mountain’s height is measured from sea level. So the summit of the Zugspitze is 2,962 metres above sea level at the North Sea.

Although the mountain looks so large, it is relatively small compared with others. There are several hundred mountains in the Alps that are higher than the Zugspitze. In fact, 128 peaks rise to more than 4,000 meters.

The Alps are the highest mountain range in Europe. They stretch for 1,200 kilometers and are between 150 and 250 kilometers wide. They span Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany.

The Alps are a young mountain range. We classify them as high mountains. In contrast, there are the mid-range mountains, such as the Black Forest, the Bavarian Forest and the Harz. Feldberg is the highest mountain in the Black Forest and the second-highest mountain in Germany. At 1,493 metres, it is only about half as high as the Zugspitze.

The highest mountain in the Alps, and also the highest mountain in Europe, is Mont Blanc. It is 4,810 meters high. Which country it belongs to is disputed. France considers it entirely part of its territory. In Italy, people believe the border between Italy and France runs right over the summit.

The highest mountain in Switzerland is Dufourspitze, at 4,634 metres. It lies just a few metres from the Italian border. The Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain, reaches 3,798 metres.

The Zugspitze has two peaks. The border between Germany and Austria runs over the slightly lower western peak. The highest point is on the eastern peak. A summit cross stands there. It is 4.88 metres tall and made of gilded iron.

Only specially equipped climbers can reach it. Most visitors to the Zugspitze only make it as far as a viewing platform some distance from the summit cross. Even so, the view from up here is spectacular—when the weather allows.

Looking north, you can see the deep-blue Eibsee and far into Bavaria. The towns of Grainau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen lie in the valley carved into the mountains by the River Loisach. On a clear day, you can even spot Lake Ammersee and Lake Starnberg in the distance. Looking south, you can see many other Alpine peaks.

Few peaks in the Alps are as easy and comfortable to reach. Many visitors, for example, take a cog railway to the top. You can board a train in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Grainau, or at Lake Eibsee, and after a short ride you’ll arrive at the glacier station at an elevation of 2,600 meters.

A rack railway can handle steep gradients. Along the way, it travels a long distance through a tunnel that ends at the glacier station. From there, you take a cable car for the rest of the way to the summit of the Zugspitze.

A cable car also runs between the Eibsee valley station and the summit, climbing 2,000 metres. You can also take another cable car to the Zugspitze from the town of Ehrwald in Austria.

You can also reach the Zugspitze on foot. However, experienced hikers need around 8 to 10 hours each way.

The landscape around the Zugspitze is beautiful. However, you can also see that the forest stretches from the foot of the mountain to about halfway up. Then it suddenly stops. Smaller plants seem to grow above the forest. But at some point, they too reach a limit. Why is that?

There are several explanations. Trees and other plants need a certain minimum temperature to grow. It is much colder in the mountains than at lower elevations. On average, the temperature drops by about six °C for every 1,000 metres of elevation. That means that if the temperature at Lake Eibsee is 20 °C, it is only about eight °C at the Zugspitze, because the mountain’s summit is almost 2,000 m higher than the lake.

At a certain altitude, it simply gets too cold for trees and eventually even smaller plants. In the Alps, this limit is at around 1,800 to 1,900 meters.

Trees and plants also need soil in which to anchor their roots and from which to take nutrients. This soil is not found on steep mountain slopes or in rocky terrain. The wind is also very strong in the mountains, so trees at higher elevations often grow only in stunted forms.

The Zugspitze is the coldest place in Germany. The average annual temperature there is minus 4.7 °C. Only in July, August and September does the average temperature rise just above 0 °C. There is frost on 310 days of the year.

The lowest temperature ever recorded on the Zugspitze was minus 35.6 °C, and the highest was 17.9 °C. In 1944, snow piled up to a depth of 8.3 m. Strong winds are common. The highest wind speed ever recorded was 355 km/h.

That is why snow lies on the Zugspitze during most months of the year. Just below the summit is a popular ski area, located on a glacier called the Northern Schneeferner. As recently as 200 years ago, the entire area south of the summit was covered by a huge glacier, which has since shrunk considerably. The other glaciers in the Alps have also lost mass in recent decades.