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Brettsk.e and the Zugspitze!
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On my second trip down to the Bavarian Alps, I was more prepared. I knew where things were
where I wanted to go. I caught the train down this time. The ICE (Inter-City Express) trains
are quite cool, and quite fast. It got up to around 250km/h on the way down, which kinda
broke the Brettski land-speed record once again. For some reason, though, they wouldn't
let me fly the damn thing! :)
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Even with the miracles of high-speed travel, with connection waits, and stops at stations
along the way, it still took around 5 hours to get from Frankfurt to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
I was barely in time to make it to the hostel before they closed up for the night, but
I made it.
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Staying at the hostel and doing the bus thing worked out quite well. The hostel gives you
a card which gives you free bus travel for the duration of your stay. You can catch a bus
into the centre of town, and to most other important places when wanting to hit the slopes.
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I was determined to snowboard on the Zugspitze this week after being foiled by bad weather
the week before. The Zugspitze is Germany's highest mountain, and is just inside the border
with Austria. The ski-field is on a glacier just on the other side of the summit. You can
catch a cable-car to the summit and then another down the other side to the ski field. Once
you're up there, the view is spectacular! The summit and the ski-field is above the clouds -
higher than I've ever snowboarded before. The weather was sunny and clear and all around was
a sea of clouds punctuated only by the island peaks of the Austrian Alps. I took a few snaps.
I'm not sure they fully capture the majesty of it all, but you can extrapolate, I'm sure.
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The setup at Zugspitze is kinda neat. Skiing/Snowboarding is free. You just have to pay
to get up there either by cogwheel train, or by cable car.
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One of many shots of the view from the top of Germany.
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And another view...
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The vistas just keep coming...
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and coming...
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Here's a shot of the summit of the Zugspitze from the peak at the far side of the ski field. You
can see the building perched right on the summit. This is the cable car station, and also has a
gift shop and restaurant in there.
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Another shot with the Summit on the left, and part of the ski field in the foreground.
This is the easier area. The better terrain is behind me, and also further down beyond the
base building.
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This is looking back up where I came down to take some of the above photos. This slope was
lots of fun, although you had to be kinda nuts to hurl yourself off the top. :)
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This is looking across the slope. You can see the chairlift in the distance - the only one
they have here - probably cos it's the only spot where there wasn't a nice smooth glacier
running up the middle. Everywhere else are T-bars.
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