With the covid virus still hanging over us as a dark cloud, this summer’s trip to Germany’s highest Peak, Zugspitze, is jeopardised. Here in early May the sun and warmth of Danish spring is slowly, but steadily beating the rain clouds, cafes are opening in Copenhagen and life is returning to the city. We are starting to plan and to get our hopes up for our German roadtrip and expedition.
City of Bremen
The plan is to drive all the way from Copenhagen in our VW van, Henning. First stop is Bremen to visit an old climbing buddy and see (and hopefully try out) the DAV kletterzentrum-bremen indoor and outdoor climbing hall. Should be pretty cool!
The ITH
Then on to some other old friends in the ITH. The ITH is a ridge in Germany’s Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover. Our friends there own and run the ITHWERK which is an Experiential learning, Ropes course, Climbing, Course and Training facility in the ITH area in Eschershausen. Its a very beautiful place with fantastic views and nice climbing routes. The ITH area has some really awesome crags. The rock is limestone of mostly really good quality. You have pretty much all kinds of climbing. I love the area because it has so many nice routes and the forest around is beautiful.
Berlin city
We’re gonna go for a little detour to Berlin, the capital of Germany. Really cool city with a lot of history, culture, Boheme artists and a buzzing city life. Berlin has a fascinating and traumatic history. After WWII the allies divided Berlin into 2 zones – West Berlin and East Berlin. West Berlin was formally controlled by the Western allies and entirely surrounded by the Soviet controlled East Berlin and East Germany. West Berlin had great symbolic significance, as it was widely considered by westerners an “island of freedom”. The infamous Berlin Wall divided Berlin into two main zones, the Soviet zone and the Western zone. It was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. GDR (East Berlin) authorities officially referred to the Berlin Wall as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart. Even today the East part of the city wears a distinct mark and atmosphere from the Soviet rule.
Zugspitze
From Berlin we continue South-Southwest toward our goal to climb Zugspitze. We are going to follow along the boarders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria, though Munich to Zugspitze. The Zugspitze at 2962 m above sea level, is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains as well as the highest mountain in Germany . It lies south of the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The Austrian–German border runs over its western summit. The Zugspitze was first climbed on 27, August 1820 by Josef Naus, Maier and Johann Georg Tauschl. There are three routes to the summit: one from the Höllental Valley to the Northeast, another out of the Reintal Valley to the Southeast and the third from the West over the Austrian Cirque. We will try to approach Zugspitze from the Höllental climbing route, with climbing gear and light packs. Time frame is around 6- 10 hours for the top approach, which is a mix of hiking, scrambling, via ferrata, rope climbing and glacier walking. We are really looking forward to this trip and training season has started.
The Dirtbags @anachy_adventures
