Summiting Zugspitze

I'm going to do my best to summarize our journey up to the top of Zugspitze (Germany's tallest mountain) in a fun way, despite the fact that for the last three hours of the climb I felt like I was dying. It's all about YOLOing!

First of all, we rented our climbing equipment (harnesses, helmets, and crampons for those without hiking boots) on Friday night so that we could get climbing as early as possible. We took a bus from the small town of Garmish to the smaller town of Grainau at the base of the mountain.

Some of our group stayed in spare bedrooms in townspeople's private homes. Justin, Marcel, and myself were going for the full experience, so we camped out in the woods! My tent was very cheap and is about the size of a double mattress, so we were quite crammed and it was really hot, but we made it work!

At 4:50am, we woke up and basically jumped out of bed. We packed up the tent, sleeping bags, and a few other things we didn't want to carry to the top of the mountain and hid them in the woods.

At 5:45am, we met up with the rest of the group...that was the plan at least. However, two of the girls were late (typical), and we didn't end up heading out until 6:15am.

We hiked through the woods for the first part until we reached the gate to the trail. A group of us made it through the gate before anyone was there to collect the 3 Euro fee, but those who stopped at the bathroom had to pay when they entered. Haha sorry dudes!

Following the gate was a series of tunnels carved into the side of the mountain that wound around waterfalls flowing down cliff faces. By far one of the most beautiful parts of the hike, but that may be because we weren't exhausted yet.

Eventually, we came to the huts in a plateau-like part of the trail where we stopped to have a snack and take a sip of our water. Looking ahead, we could see the exciting part: the first via ferrata!

A via ferrata is essentially climbing up a cliff face with iron ladders and pegs that previous climbers had set up for future climbers. Along the side of these climbs are cables to clip your carabiner onto for safety.

After we reached the top, we discussed exactly how ineffective we imagined this system would have been had any of us fallen. It most certainly would have saved our lives, but I have no doubt that we would have smacked our faces against the cliff face and ended up in a lot of pain (still better than the alternative, I guess).

After the first via ferrata, we were back to some rough hiking. The hill was very steep with a lot of loose rocks, so every time you would take a step up, you would slide halfway back down. For me, this was one of the most grueling parts. I hated all of the negative progress involved.

Close to 10:00am, it was getting to be quite hot out and our water supply was running low. You can only carry so much up the mountain with you. Luckily, just before we got to the glacier, we found a fresh stream of water. Everyone told us that we could "drink at our own risk", but I think we were all under the impression that it was far riskier to not drink it.

After refilling our water bottles, we headed toward the glacier. This part was supposed to be one of the scariest and hardest parts, despite the fact that signs at the bottom indicated it was in pretty good condition for today. Crampons were not even required.

Those with tennis shoes strapped on their crampons (which are basically bear traps strapped to the bottom of your shoes to dig into the ice), and we began our scaling of the glacier. It was pretty cool to be walking across the snow in end of July. And yes, snowballs were thrown!

Our understanding was that things would sail pretty smoothly after the glacier, so we were relieved to make it to the second section of the via ferrata. Unfortunately, our expectations were only slightly skewed.

The rest of the climb was awesome! You were strapped in most of the time because it was a combination of via ferrata, actual rock climbing, and scaling ledges overlooking potential drops to your death. It provided great views of the valley we had just climbed through, the surrounding mountain range, and a view ahed of climbers striving for the top. What we didn't expect was how long this part was. It was a good hour to hour and a half climb of basically straight up struggling while clipping on and off with your carabiners.

It didn't really help that I definitely didn't eat enough for what ended up being a 9-10 hour climb. At this point, I was feeling quite exhausted and on the "struggle bus" big time. If I didn't feel like I was going to pass out most of the time, I probably wouldn't have needed to use the carabiners as often, but I figured better safe than sorry.

Jona had stayed with me when I stopped to grab a drink and try to get some more food and energy in my body. Without him pushing me, I don't know that things would have gone so well for me. As we got closer and closer, we kept seeing that we were still further and further than we imagined.

Finally, we could see the golden cross that marked the peak of the mountain! It was a bittersweet moment because we could also see the storm clouds rapidly approaching us. Not wanting to put Jona or myself in any danger, I summoned what was left of my strength to get to the top as fast as possible.

We made it and took pictures at the cross before heading into the hut at the summit. As we were walking down, the hair on my arms was standing on end because of all of the electricity in the air. If we touched each other or the metal support cable, we would get a nice shock (like static electricity).

All in all, it was a great climb, but I was glad to take the train back down to the bottom and get some dinner! Although, it will probably be a little while before I decide to do it again...and next time I will eat more along the way!