Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

August 11, 2025

2962m

Ehrwald, Austria/Germany

Zugspitze is an “ultra prominent peak” but is more known as the highest peak in Germany. The summit is shared between Germany and Austria and there are about a dozen routes on both sides of the border. It seems to me that the most famous route is the “full ascent” of 2300 m elevation profile from the NE but there exists shorter options. Vlad happened to be in the vicinity when Adam and I were peak-bagging in Innsbruck area by pure coincidence, and we altered the itinerary slightly so that we could share at least one day together. The objective was chosen to be Zugspitze. Adam needed a “rest day” so he would take the tramway to (near) the summit and then down, whereas Vlad and I would hike up from the valley bottom. I wasn’t keen on the Germany route so Vlad did the research and picked the west side Austrian ferrata route, which is also known as “Stopselzieher” or the “Cork Screw”. This would still require more than 1700 m elevation gain but is the shortest option without taking one of the two tramways.

There’s a sting in the tail for this objective that from what I heard, tagging the true summit “spire” of Zugspitze required trespassing. The situation must have changed nowadays because I did not observe any prohibitive sign, and tens if not hundreds of hikers went there during my visit. There’s nothing difficult but one does have to climb up a metal ladder and this is technically a “via ferrata” ascent. From a normal person’s perspective it’s understandable if the government was trying to discourage hikers from taking unnecessary risks but for us, all of that is absolute bullshit. A visit without tagging the true summit would be a failure. There’s no question in that, period. When Vlad and I were planning the trip we weren’t sure about the situation nor the level of enforcement so the safest way was to beat the tramway up there. The first ride would start at 8:30 am and we planned to be on the summit by then, bypassing any potential confrontation with the authorities. Adam would have no choice but taking a chance on that, as the earliest arrival for him was the first gondola ride. The route that Vlad and I planned to take already involves some level of ferrata climbing but the grade was A/B, so we weren’t going to bring helmets, harnesses nor the ferrata kits.

Vlad had paid for an expensive Airbnb with his family in the vicinity for about 700 dollars for 4 days. Adam and I would absolutely not pay for that, so we again went to search for the illegal camping options. This area was very tricky but I did manage to find one, off the beaten path on a dirt road heading up towards a restaurant or something. The restaurant was probably not in operation because we encountered absolutely no traffic during the night. We parked at one of the more convenient spots within 2 km from the start, and simply pitched the tents beside the vehicle, and had no issue with that. The alarms went off at 3:30 am and we would meet up with Vlad in Ehrwald an hour later. Vlad was late by 5 min due to an error in driving. We then followed Vlad’s lead driving to the lower (free) parking area to ditch Vlad’s car, and then all piled into our stinking garbage vehicle for the short ride to the upper trail-head. The piling required some smartness but we got that figured out. This is also the base of the gondola so Adam would sleep a few more hours in the vehicle to wait for the first ride of the day. This parking lot was not free but we took a chance by not paying, and did not get ourselves into trouble. Nobody would be there ticketing in the early morning of a weekday.

Vlad and I started the long ass plod under a bright full moon and the first stretch was a tiring slog up a gated gravel road. About 10 minutes into the trip we merged onto the trail and followed it into the “lower basin”. It was still pitch dark but the full moon made it possible for us to see the terrain around. This area is absolutely rugged. The other early bird hikers were all fairly fast but Vlad and I were slightly quicker. For a long while we were alternating the lead with a young local couple, but we eventually pulled ahead of them on the narrow traverse towards the upper basin. The morning horizon was quite impressive so we also stopped regularly for photos. Our only major break/rest stop was at Wiener-Newstädter Hütte at 2230 m elevation. We didn’t even bother to go into the hut, but rather sit on the bench outside. I was getting cold very quickly so we only stopped briefly for food and water.

The ferrata climb out of this “upper basin” appeared rather daunting but we knew it was only graded A/B so there’s nothing to worry about. The slog to the start of the ferrata had some loose scree and the start was by going through some tunnel features. The scrambling was “class 3” at the most but without the artificial aids this would probably be a 5th class climb. I was trying hard to not use the metal hand/foot holds but I could not manage that entirely. There’s at least one short stretch of fairly sustained ferrata climbing. Higher up the terrain was mostly class 2 so we took the trekking poles out again and began the tiring slog. I did not enjoy the upper route as it’s mostly just plodding on loose terrain. Eventually we reached the crest of the SW Ridge, donned some sun protection but still had a ways to go. The worst route-finding was inside the summit building. There are at least 4 floors and I had absolutely no clue how to get out of the building to access the true summit ferrata/scramble. We ended up walking all the way downstairs and then back up, wasting probably 50 m elevation gain. Eventually after a shit ton amount of 4-letter words we gave up on ourselves and asked the folks out on the viewing platform who had harnesses on, and they gave us the correct direction. It was actually quite trivial and even had sign of “summit”, so this was not a trespass after all. The true summit scramble did not live up to the hype because it was very short and easy. We did have to be careful about the polished holds but that’s it. We were on top of Germany in 3.5 hours, successfully beating both the Germany and Austrian tramways.

I did not eat anything on the entire ascent so we walked back up to the viewing platform and took a long food break. Meanwhile the tourists had arrived via the Germany tramway but the crowding situation was not nearly as bad as I thought. A while later Vlad suggested us to walk back to the Austrian tram to get the downloading tickets just in case there’s some problems with that. The cost was 44 EUR just for the descent, which I thought was a total scam. Adam showed up moments later and we walked him and showed the correct way to access the true summit area, but didn’t go back up to the true summit with him. We then all took the tramway down and concluded this quick ascent. I think we got down to the car at around 10 am. There was definitely enough time to bag another peak or two, but the plan was to climb Marmolada in Italy tomorrow, so there’s no time to waste. With the 4+ hours of driving ahead Adam and I quickly took off, so this was the only objective I did with Vlad in this entire trip.