UKC

Hi, 

Im heading out to Bavaria (near Garmisch) in oct to visit my partners family. although oct may not be the best season for alpine/winter. Ill be there and back through out the next 2 years with work and family stuff so was hoping to get the lay of the land on this trip. 

Does anyone have any experience here or can point me in the direction of good resources. A google search takes me to the usual via ferrata stuff! 

Im used to climbing a mix of Scottish winter and french/italian alps so would like to think im pretty comfortable in most conditions (type two fun welcomed).

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated, many thanks 

Tom

Bergsteigen may have some info on it. Zoom in on the map in the routes section.

According to my Bavarian partner, there isn't much. The good stuff is in Austria.

The Jubilaumsgrat between the Alpspitze and Zugspitze gets done in winter and is supposed to be pretty serious in those conditions. In summer it's partly a klettersteig but most of those are frozen and snowed over during winter. 

Awkward season: too cold for high rock routes but virtually no chance of any winter stuff being in yet. No snow visible at 2000m on this webcam for example: https://www.bergfex.com/garmisch-partenkirchen/webcams/c6129/

Plenty of decent sport climbing around there though

you may be happy with the weather and get some alpine rock climbing done on the south faces of Schüsselkarspitze and around.  Schüsselkarspitze

As other locals have said above, it’s unlikely there will be any meaningful winter stuff to be done in October. If you’re lucky there might still be some dry alpine rock. 

But if you’re around later this year or early next, I’d recommend picking up this guidebook: https://www.panico.de/eiskletterfuhrer-bregenz-bis-garmisch.html

It has a load of icefalls, some shorter mixed things and 1 or 2 big alpine-scale objectives. Bergsteigen is also a good shout, though their coverage is very patchy and not remotely representative of what there is to do out here.

Ralf Sussmann (prolific local activist) has a blog which is also good: https://www.nordalpenklettern.lima-city.de/. Basically, if my experience is anything to go by, once you have a guidebook you’ll be able find out a lot just by sniffing around and googling the names of peaks followed by the word “klettern”. 

Hope that’s helpful. If you need a partner while you’re out this way, feel free to PM me. Always happy to climb with new folk, especially those keen for winter things. 

Hi Tom, what about looking into routes on the Wetterstein mountains. Panico have a guide book :

https://www.panico.de/alpinkletterfuehrer-wetterstein-nord.html

alternatively you could have a look at The Crag website:

https://www.thecrag.com/de/klettern/germany/oberbayern/area/2754656667

Hope this helps!

Panico also have a Wetterstein South volume, which as tjekel pointed out covers things that might be more likely to be climbable on sunny days in October: https://www.panico.de/alpinkletterfuhrer-wetterstein-sud.html

Hi Alan, you're absolutley right, the south side of the Wetterstein is going to be more pleasant for climbing in Autumn. However it lies in Austria and I wasn't sure how far Tgallon14 wanted to travel to the crag. Maybe there are some great routes on the north side that are only a 30min drive away - just a thought

True, but it could still be interpreted as "in the Garmisch area" - especially the Meilerhütte where hiking up from either side is equally painful.

I'm not sure offhand if there are still officially covid border controls, but de facto they've pretty much stopped bothering, especially on smaller routes like Mittenwald-Leutasch

It seems the '3G' rule is being relaxed also, the Hoernlehutte is not applying it now.

In reply to Tgallon14:

I have a little Wetterstein guidebook if anyone wants scans of the topos or route descriptions.

Lots of excellent webcams at fotowebcam.eu, complete with temperatures and history so you can see when the snow starts kicking in.  There is some waterfall ice as low down as Oberamergau but I don't know how reliable it is.

If you don't have transport check out the trains, that's what I've been doing the past couple of years for mountain walking/snowshoeing.

In reply to All:  I also have folks in the area so would potentially be up for partnering on easy, enjoyable rock, VF or walking when I'm over, but won't be bringing a rack.

This is all great thanks! 

I will be there more and more often now so will look at getting those guide books! 

Snow down to 1000m tonight and it was pretty grim on the Zugspitze at the weekend, two guys trapped by snowfall for two days and the MR couldn't get to them. The Zugspitze itself is just a heap of rubble as it's name suggests (scree heap).