New walkway along the Leutaschklamm gorge

So I had a friend come to visit last week who wanted to see the Alps, so I took her to Mittenwald because it's my favourite town in the German Alps. There wasn't really any cross-country skiing that we could do, what with winter having been cancelled this year, but Mittenwald keeps a lot of their footpaths open in the winter, so we did some hiking instead. A particularly cool new walk has only been possible since last summer.

One of Mittenwald's main attractions is the Leutaschklamm, an attractive gorge just to the south of the town. You pay a euro or so to go in, and follow a walkway as far as a waterfall, and then turn around and go out again. Now there is a new way of seeing the gorge - the new 'Geisterklammweg', which enters the gorge higher up and provides great views of the steep-sided valley from the new walkways.

Built at a cost of 1.4 million euros, the metal walkway winds its way for over half a kilometre up the gorge. Two bridges provide access to the paths on the other side of the gorge and provide rather dizzying views to the stream below.

It's not quite the Grand Canyon, and the Partnachklamm near Garmisch-Partenkirchen is perhaps still the more spectacular, but this is definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in the area - and Mittenwald is always a nice place to take visitors to.

The paths are currently all open, although this may change if it actually decides to snow for once. The link below tells you whether or not the path is open (the Wasserfallweg is the old path into the gorge and is only open between May and October).

Alpenwelt-Karwendel - Die Leutascher Geisterklamm
Auf dem Grenzweg durch die Leutaschklamm

Excellent. Noted as a must-do for the spring.

Thanks for the post. Always great to hear (and see) where people's favorite places are and tips/notes on them.

I remember Leutasch from my first visit to Germany in 1966 at the star of a year in Munich.
My father had an exchange year as a lecturer at the University in Munich & we had access
to a chalet in Leutsch owned by two of the University profs (one later got Nobel prize for Chemistry)...

Unspoilt countryside, almost no development, smell of fresh air & wood fires.

20 years later I drove through with my wife & didnt recognise the place...

How can I reach Mittenwald without a car? Are there public transport links? I also have a friend visiting soon - Mittenwald looks like a perfect day out fro two non-skiers. Any info regarding trains/buses/routes would be much appreciated. Thanks.

There are regular direct trains. I'd look them up for you but I have to do some real work for a few minutes.

No worries, I don't do real work

Type "München" and "Mittenwald" into the Deutsche Bahn website and you'll get the times; the trains are direct, once an hour. After 9am or any time at weekends you can use the Bayern Ticket; €27 for up to five people. Once you're there, pick up a map from the tourist office, everything's within walking distance.

This looks a really great walk - thanks for sharing it...sounds a real goodie

Thanks again for sharing this info, I will for sure check this out...

I did this yesterday and enjoyed it, although the heights did get to me at times and I don't usually have a problem with them.

To put it into perspective: it took me about an hour to see the gorge, and that was dawdling and going from bottom to top. It's certainly not a day hike for any seasoned walkers out there, but can be used as a warm-up for something more demanding. Or simply combined with a look at Mittenwald itself which is quite cute - probably a better bet with kids in tow.

But whatever you do: don't look straight down! You can see through the walkways.

I hate that sort of thing (and yes - my sport is gliding!!!)

What, this sort of thing?

Oooh, we went up here as well. It completely rocks. But some of those panels on the walkways are coming loose, so really, seriously don't look down!! Cackle.

Last Saturday afternoon, a busy time for the gorge, a slab of rock weighing several hundred kilograms fell from the sheer walls and smashed the bridge. Miraculously, no one was hurt although a group of hikers had just been crossing it. Authorities cannot say how the loose slab was overlooked as the walls are under constant surveillance but assume that the heavy rain in the past week caused the avalanche. The path is closed indefinitely.

The path reopened after 10 days.