Zugspitze

From Germany:

Eibsee-Seilbahn. The fully-accessible Cable Car Zubspitze aerial tram departs from a station near the Eibsee (a lake at the foot of the Zugpitze) and rises 1950 meters or 6,397 feet to the mountain's summit ridge. It's a spectacular ride that includes the world's longest unsupported cablecar span (3,213 meters or 10,541 feet).

Zahnradbahn. The Bayerische Zugspitzbahn, a meter-gauge rack railway, starts its journey alongside the DB railroad station in Garmisch. It travels along the valley to Grainau and on to Eibsee before ascending the Zugspitze under cogwheel power.

At the Zugspitzplatt or Zugspitze Glacier Plateau, 2600 meters up the 2964m mountain, you switch to the Gletscherbahn aerial cablecar for a quick ascent to the summit ridge. Total travel time is 75 minutes from Garmisch, 60 minutes from Grainau, or 35 minutes from Eibsee.

Tips:

• Ascend the Zugspitze in the morning and have lunch in one of the mountain restaurants.

• The last train or cable car down the mountain is in late afternoon. Arrive early enough to avoid feeling rushed!

• A roundtrip ticket costs the same no matter how you travel, so take the Zahnradbahn and Gletscherbahn in one direction and the Eibsee-Seilbahn in the other.

• If you're driving, you can park at Eibsee and skip the Garmisch-Grainau-Eibsee section of the train ride. Normally, I'd recommend taking the Eibsee-Seilbahn cable car up the mountain and coming down by the Zahnradbahn; this way, you'll be sure of finding seats with your companions on the cogwheel train. However, if you have a heart condition or are sensitive to altitude, it's best to ascend the mountain more slowly by cogwheel train.

• If you're without a car, you can buy a roundtrip ticket from Garmisch. Take the Zahnradbahn to Eibsee and switch to the Eibsee-Seilbahn cable car. For the return trip, descend via the Gletscherbahn cable car to the cogwheel railroad's mountain station at Zugspitzplatt, where you'll board the train for Garmisch.

• During the winter season, you can buy ski passes for the Zugspitze train, cable cars, and 35 other lifts in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen/Grainau region.

For more information on Zugspitze transportation (including wheelchair access), visit Zugspitze.de.

From Austria:

The Tiroler Zugspitzbahn, an aerial cablecar with a capacity of 100 passengers, climbs 1,725 meters from Ehrwald, Tyrol to the Zugspitz summit ridge in just 10 minutes.

There aren't any hotels with private rooms on the slopes of the Zugspitze, but the village of Grainau has a good selection of hotels and guesthouses. (See Booking.com's Grainau hotel listings.)

Most visitors stay in nearby Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is Germany's most popular mountain resort.

If you're willing to share a dormitory with hikers and mountaineers, try the Münchner Haus from early May through the beginning of October. This Hütte of the Deutsche Alpenverein was built in 1897 and is near the summit of the Zugspitze.

The Camping Resort Zugspitze in Grainau is a convenient place to stay if you're traveling with a tent or camper van.

The Sonnalpin (see photo) is the largest restaurant on the Zugspitze, with 350 seats at indoor tables and room for another 800 guests on the sun terrace. Its self-service restaurant dishes up generous portions of tasty food at reasonable prices. (We can recommend the Wienerschnitzel with pommes frites, and the berry crumb cake is delightful.)

The Sonnalpin is located at the edge of a glacier on the Zugspitzplatt or Zugspitze Plateau, where it adjoins the mountain station of the cogwheel railway.

Other restaurants in the Zugspitze's summit complex include Panorama 2962 (with dishes from the four Alpine countries) and the German-style Gletschergarten in a distinctive glass structure that can be opened up for alfresco dining in good weather.

Two cablecars lead to the summit ridge: The Seilbahn-Eibsee from Eibsee, in the valley; and the Gletscherbahn from the Zugspitzplatt station of the cogwheel railway.

Finally, the German Alpine Club's Münchner Haus serves drinks and meals in a cozy 19th Century mountain hut during the hiking and climbing season. In good weather, you can eat outdoors.

You can ski or snowboard from October until May on the Zugspitze, where the permanent ice of Germany's only glacier helps to keep snow frozen at both ends of the ski season.

The cogwheel-railway station at the Zugspitzplatt offers easy access to nine T-bars and a chair lift at elevations of more than 2600 meters. There's also a 140m halfpipe and a "Funpark" for snowboarders. Equipment is available for rent at Zugspitzplatt.

The Garmisch-Partenkirchen region has many other ski areas, with a total of about 40 lifts and more than 70 km of marked trails in five Skigebiete.

You can buy ski passes that are valid for lifts through the region (including the Zugspitze's cogwheel train and cablecars).

For more information, select a language at Zugspitze.de and go to the "Winter" pages via the navigation menu.

Don't plan on taking the cablecar to the Zugspitze's summit ridge and walking down--the upper slopes of the mountain are too steep for hiking.

The Bayerische Zugspitzbahn suggests two easy (and extremely short) hiking excursions atop the mountain:

• Follow the trail to the cross on the mountain's summit (assuming that you aren't bothered by heights). You'll be standing at 2964 meters or 9,724 feet, with a superb view of the mountain and the surrounding region.

• Walk past the Münchner Haus and through the enclosed bridge to the Tyrolean side of the summit ridge, which offers impressive views of the Austrian Alps.

A few hundred meters down on the glacier, next to the Sonn Alpin restaurant and the cogwheel train's station, you can walk across to the viewing platform at the Windlöche ("howling wind hole") in about 30 minutes.

The Bayerische Zugspitzbahn has other suggestions for hikers who are willing to spend six to eight hours walking downhill from the glacier area: one to the Olympic Stadium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and another to the Austrian village of Ehrwald (where you can catch a train back to Germany).

For details, pick up a brochure at any Bayerische Zugspitze ticket office or e-mail:

Mountaineering is another option, although several of the other mountains around Garmisch-Partenkirchen are of greater interest to climbers.

The best climbing months are July through September, but the weather can be unpredictable--as you can tell from the photos of snow-covered scenery in this article, which were taken on September 28.

For more information, go to Zugspitze.de and choose the "Summer" pages.