Alpine winter

At 2,962 meters above sea level, the Zugspitze is Germany's highest peak, and the Zugspitzplatt is the country's most highly situated ski resort, with snow virtually guaranteed. The season there runs from November to April. In addition to the skiing opportunities on the glaciers, there's plenty of winter fun in the valleys. And off the beaten track, far from the hubbub on the pistes, hikers and ice climbers can have their own adventures in pristine natural surroundings.

At the foot of the Zugspitze lies Garmisch-Partenkirchen, one of Bavaria's best-known holiday resorts. Many of the facades of its charming old houses are decorated with murals featuring religious or rustic motifs. The town's most famous resident was the composer Richard Strauss, who memorialized the area musically in his tone poem, "An Alpine Symphony." His villa is now a museum.

The steep precipices of the Zugspitze were long considered insurmountable. Not until 1820 did a mountaineer, Joseph Naus, manage to reach its summit. Nowadays, you can get there in a mere 10 minutes on the Eibsee Cable Car. The panorama stretches over the Bavarian Alps and the mountains of Austria and Switzerland all the way to Italy.

Alexander Bayerl works as a mountain guide. Click on the video below to join him on a bobsled run on Riessersee Lake, and then to the pilgrimage church of St. Anton and an exhibition about writer Michael Ende.

Text: DW-TV
Editor: Kate Bowen