Zugspitze Hike Day 1

Zugspitze Hike, Day 1

We started off the day by parking our Jeep at the 1936 winter Olympics ski jump park in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Parking costs about 2 EUR a day, so it is quite affordable. For most people, including us, this is the starting location of the hike to the summit of Zugspitze. There are several routes up to the Zugspitze, but we chose the least difficult and longest option. It is not the most popular of all the options, but it is certainly still a great route. 

As an alternative to parking at the ski jump, you could park at the Eibsee (more about this later), and take a train to the starting point, but this will delay your actual hiking start by probably an hour.  Even if we thought of this option to begin with, it would not have worked for us anyways, because we were already a bit behind what we had planned. 

The most popular hiking route is also one of the more difficult routes. It involved hiking through what is called “Hell’s valley” (Höllental) and a bit of rock climbing. So with that being said, we would definitely suggest others try out the Reintal route (what we chose) as well. It is said to be the prettiest, too! 

The other two trails include the Stopselzieher and the Jubiläumsgrat. The Stopselzieher requires you to start in Austria, and also involves some climbing, but is much shorter than all other trails! The Jubiläumsgrat involves starting on the ridge of the lower part of the mountain and seriously rock climbing up the Zugspitze, like seriously serious. You must be well seasoned to do this! In any case, this was not us. 

For this trip Lucas and I each brought a backpack, packed full of items we would need. We had our sleeping bags and pillows strapped to the outsides, with changes of clothes and dried fruits and sandwiches inside of them. We were going to be in the back-country for 2 days, so we needed to bring everything we needed. Since we planned to stay in a hut for the night we also brought some charging cables for our electronics and the typical travel-sized hygiene products.

As part of walking the Reintal way, you get to walk through the Partnachklamm ravine, which costs 6 EUR in cash, no cards in this instance. I would definitely recommend even just visiting the ravine, even if you don’t want to do the whole hike. It is so beautiful and intense. The water is crystal clear while raging down the river. It is filled with white water, and the roar of the river will consume you for the whole 30 minutes that you walk. Be prepared to get a little wet! Water does spray and drip off the cliff walls, so every now and then you will get dripped on. Also watch your head. Sometimes you have to walk through some man-made tunnels, and they are a bit low hanging. 

After exiting the ravine, we hiked along the beautiful river for about an hour before experiencing our first major uphill treat, which after 20 minutes of uphill turned back into downhill. This is how a large portion of our hike continued. We would climb uphill for a while, and then undo all that elevation with a downhill. In this way, the Reintal valley we were hiking through was relatively flat, compared to what we would experience later. Around noon, after 3 hours of walking, we stopped for a quick little lunch break on a bridge that crossed the river. Did I mention the river was amazing!?!? 

We eventually entered a very mossy forest, which was a really cool vibrant green, and continued to get passed by mountain bikers (who were going uphill!). I cannot imagine how they biked up some of those hills, they were hard enough to walk up, and often covered in uneven rocks and tree roots. Crazy. 

Soon after, we encountered the first of three huts. This hut was situated along the river and offered hikers a place to stop and eat. We had literally just eaten so we kept going, following the river until it seemingly vanished. The raging river, then, just, stopped. We kept hiking the ups and downs, and after around 4-5 hours found the second hut. 

This hut allowed hikers a place to stay the night and get fed. It was next to the river, which by this point and quite magically reappeared. We did not choose to stay at this hut though, we had plans to stay at the third hut. Many people were sitting and enjoying their meals after a long day of hiking, but we continued onward. We were like a slow moving but constantly going train. We would get passed by other hikers often, just to find them an hour later resting. We just kept chugging along. Choo Choo! 

Just after this second hut, the trail split. One path led to the starting point of the Partnach River, while the other curved around a different direction. We chose to follow the path that would see the river’s starting point. How could anyone not? This raging river was with us the whole way, we had to see how it started. 

At this part in our journey, we were also supposed to see sheep during our hike. There were no sheep, but there was a lot of sheep poop! Lucas was sad, but what can you do? After walking along our chosen path, taking a little extra care to stay on the trail because it wasn’t as obvious as previous ones, we came across the starting point of the river. It seemingly just flowed out of the mountain rocks. We are unsure if it is a result of a spring or nearby glacier, but all the same it just flows out of the cliff side, all the way to our starting point, and then some. 

After seeing the spring, we continued onwards to the third and final hut. We followed the trail to the start of what would be a very long climb, but by now we were conditioned and ready. This steep, loose rock-covered hill side continued up and up with switchback after switchback. The off-trail ground was covered in larger more sturdy rocks as well as patches of grass, and so eventually we gave up on the switchbacks and just started climbing straight up the mountainside. I felt like the larger rocks and patches of grass were easier to find sure-footing on, whereas the actual trail was very loose and easy to slip and fall. 

Up to this point, Lucas was still carrying our camera on its tripod, by hand. He refused to give it up no matter how hard things got, he was so determined to hike the whole thing while recording it. 

Eventually, while we were taking one of our breaks every five minutes to catch our breath, we ran into an older looking man. He was about 60 years old, and was slender and wearing short running shorts and a light backpack. We actually saw this very man running along the trail when we started, some 6 hours prior, and here he was, hiking back down the mountain and valley. It was insane. We spent all day just getting to this point, and here is this 60- something year old man had already made it up the mountain and was heading back!

Still, we pushed forward, determined to make it to our hut. After about 2 hours from the second hut, and even more climbing, we reached the plateau of the Reintal valley. We still couldn’t see our hut, but we continued following the red and white Austrian-flag-painted rocks until we saw a golden pole sticking out of the ground above us. 

At this point we had lost track of the trail, it seemed to have just vanished, but we knew the hut must be in the direction of the pole, so we started climbing to the pole. We abandoned the loose-gravel trail and started crawling up the grassy mountainside on all fours, as it was more secure. I was so determined to make it up the hillside that I grabbed what ever grass clumps I could get a hold of (some of those being sheep poop). But I didn’t care- I had hiked to long and hard to worry about a little poop. I made it up to the pole first, with Lucas trailing behind me. As I reached the crest of the hill the pole was on, the hut came into view. I was so relieved! We were finally there! 

The hut was at the top of one final hill, which was covered in loose granite rock. It was so frustrating, and we were so tired, but we dug deep and hiked to the hut. It was probably only 500 feet away, but it felt like miles. We were exhausted. 

We first went to check-in to the hut, and pay for our nights stay. It cost 29 EUR a person, and they only accepted cash. They offer you the choice of having a breakfast, lunch, or dinner for an added cost, but at 10+ EUR a person we chose not to. We had packed our own food after all, so might as well save the money. 

After putting our sleeping bags in the cabin and dumping our backpacks on the mattresses, our hunger got the best of us.  We went outside and sat on some rocks to dine on our salami sandwiches, carrots, and dried fruit. The best part was dessert- homemade granola bars! We sat there enjoying the view, and relishing in our achievement. 

It took us around 8 hours to reach the hut from where we started. We had climbed so high we could no longer even see the valley below because of the ridgeline of the cliff we were on, but the view never got old. We had spent hours looking up at the mountains from the valley floor and now we were able to see the tops of the mountains, and even the mountains that were hidden behind them. It was just so breathtaking.

I also found out that the people that work in the hut just live in the hut for the whole season. So from May to October, they live up in the mountains. They said it’s like working and vacationing at the same time, because you get to enjoy the beautiful view. 

Finally, we went to sleep. Sleeping in the huts is a little different than a hotel. There are dorm rooms with around 20 beds per room, and they just fill them up. Maybe in our case we were a little lucky with COVID-19, because they didn’t fill the rooms as much, so they weren’t so cramped. We didn’t have to sleep next to any strangers, which made me happy. 

We were super sore. My calves and arms were so tired. Lucas’ shoulders were very sore, he said. He had been carrying the tripod all day, and thinks it made the backpack lay on his shoulders in a weird way, making his muscles extremely tender. We both took some ibuprofen to try and be preventative. 

Then fatigue took a toll on us, and at 8:30 PM, we decided to go to bed. Lucas completely crashed, even with all the people talking and the lights on. I was glad I brought ear plugs. I slept super well. We slept with the room’s window open because otherwise the room got too warm. You would think it would have been cold being up in the mountains, at around 2 degrees celsius (35 Fahrenheit), but it was actually a perfect temperature.