2021-09-18, Zugspitze, Germany:
Sofya Levental
I am someone, who moved to the area to live closer to the mountains. So, you can imagine how surprisingly was it for me to find out that my colleagues, who like bouldering, running, hiking and spend the whole life near one of the two glaciers that left in Germany, have ever trod neither of the glaciers with own feed. We needed to change it as soon as possible!
The choice of a route was obvious: climbing Zugspitze via Höllentalklamm offers enjoying beautiful views, hiking a glacier, climbing a via ferrate and the highest mountain in Germany. How happy (and a bit surprised) was I, when the stars really aligned for this tour!
Daniel Rieth
In fact, I had not done much alpinism before – that’s why I had some doubts at first about whether I should try the tour. Was it perhaps too difficult for a rookie like me, who had to borrow about half of his equipment from friends (including hiking pants)? The route looked relatively strenuous at first glance, but there was no more direct route up to the summit. So this was clear for me, then as little distance as possible.
The first section of about two hours to the hut was nothing more than a nice walk. The caves and waterfalls of the Höllentalklamm were a beautiful, albeit a quite wet sight. At the hut there was first of all another cold shower, a good dinner and a cozy, if somewhat narrow mattress camp…
Gregor Schmid
I had been planning for more than 2 years to finally climb the Zugspitze and was thrilled when Sofya got down to business and initiated the project. I had a lot of respect for the tour – especially the route over the glacier. I would not have chosen that one for lack of experience.
But thanks to the superb organization including a lot of borrowed equipment the adventure stayed well within limits and could be mastered without greater difficulties – not least thanks to the absolutely perfect weather, which has made the tour a dream. Only the summit shock, which probably all Zugspitze hikers know, when you reach the summit after hours in the rock only to meet the throng of sneaker tourists, is a bit heavy. But I can’t really complain as I was grateful for a descent in comfort with the train.