TT Alpspitze Mountain Climb/Hike - Sun 10.Oct.2004

TT Outdoor Adventure #1:

I'm thinking of planning a 1-day hike up Alpspitze (2628m) on Sunday October 10th. This would be the weekend after Oktoberfest, so it's a way to lose some of those hard-earned calories/pounds gained during Oktoberfest. The area can easily be reached by train or car from Garmisch. The pyramid-shaped mountain is easily visible from Garmisch. I've done this hike twice before.

First off, this is not a beginner hike...so you should be in relatively good shape and comfortable with heights. What should also be said is that this is an easy hike /climb...it's not really challenging if you're somewhat used to the mountains and heights. There is a very good chance of snow at or near the top. No climbing equipment or special gear is required for the hike...except for decent hiking shoes and a good backpack. There are no technical climbing sections on the proposed route, but there is a lengthy scrambling section (extremely light climbing). We won't be doing the Via ferrata route!

I just posted this to see if there's some interest...the date is not totally fixed yet, but we shouldn't push it back too far or else we'll be hiking in waist high snow. Let me know if you're interested...

me! me!

Guess that counts me out

Jeeves shows preliminary interest pending his state of health post Oktoberfest. Not been up the Alpspitze yet.

In edingburugh, or somewhere in the uk, sorry

I'll come if someone can carry me up!

good plan.. might make this..

This makes a (nice ???) change from pissups!

How high is the vertical ascent. I'm in if its less than 1500m

It would probably be around that. I think that Garmisch is around 900 m.a.s.l. so that would make it more like 1700m, which is a fair day's hike.

some friends did this tour a month or so back. they left munich by car at 7 a.m. and were home at 9.30 p.m. they stopped at the höhlentalklamm beergarden (at the top of the klamm) of course, to drink a beer. one guy jogs a whole helluva lot and said he hadn't such sore muscles since running the marathon! because he is a bit afraid of heights, they avoided certain climbing sections. said it was a great climb.

Thanks for the feedback. We'd probably need to leave earlier than 7 then because it will be getting dark much earlier by then than it did a month ago.

Hmm. I know Greg will be interested, as I am too, but I want a bit more planning than the hike you guys did near Gardasee.

4am - bedtime
9:30am - hike start
+30° heat and little water
food? We don't need no stinking food!

@showem You exaggerate but only slightly (I was in bed by 2, had enough water and we found some on the way). Food might have helped indeed. But the point is valid, all the more so as conditions are not terribly predictable in October. Basically in Riva we didn't think about it at all and it's not good to underestimate the mountains.

Where is Greg anyway, we need his contra on the cricket!

He's at a customer in Mainz until tomorrow, so unlikely to be looking at Toytown (but possibly the cricket).

Yes, it was a bit of an exagerration, but Alpspitz is a big stinking mountain, it will require prepping and packing for all seasons.

Absolutely agree. 1700m (at a guess) is a lot for a day with about 12 hours daylight. My rule of thumb says 1/4 hour for 100m, which would mean over four hours at best to get up there (that's without scrambling or whatever is required here). And not much shorter to get down if it's steep. Say 8 1/2 hours just walking, plus a bit of hanging around at the top and drinkies at the end.
"All seasons" is the right expression as they can all arrive in one day in that part of the world. We probably won't need crampons, but as Canuck mentioned there could well be snow around.

Okay, I just found info here. As a summary:

750m at bottom - 2050m at top; 1300m difference

Okay so Canuck lied about the top and I lied about the bottom ;-)
If those are the final figures then that makes an hour less to ascend. Plus the chance of snow is far lower.

Wrong answer ...that's the height difference from Hammersbach (actually it's 758m) to Osterfelderkopf (2050m). To reach the top, you need to go to 2628m. That means the entire height difference is 1870m. Which is possible...I've done this exact route from the bottom twice before. OR we can take the cable car directly up to 2050m which leaves us 600m left to climb. If we leave early enough...We should be able to do the longer route easily and take the cable car back down.

That fits. I've done the Osterfeldkopf and it wasn't hard. Hard on the knees going down though. I'd vote for the cable car down version. Always better. And a 600m climb is hardly worth the effort ;-)

I like your thinking Jeeves. U be a ruthless, hardcore road dog!! Where my Hennessey b at?

Anything that has a mechanical down route has my vote!

i would love to do something like that

nice one canack, by the 10th of October I should need some decent exercise. So might be up for this although I’m not sighing up right now.

Check out:

Alpspitze topo map and pics

Keep in mind the purple route marked on the (right) click-on topo map we would NOT be doing. It's to difficult for a bigger group. Like I said we would start at Hammersbach, go up the KE2, OL1 paths to Hochalm and then to Osterfelderkopf. Also, we will NOT be climbing any ladders (i.e. Via Ferrata)...Unless you people want to? However, the idea we would be to go on the purple route in the Südwest Grat picture along the ridge. Looks fun eh? That's the last 30mins of the hike/climb...and that's also the light scrambling section. I like that click-on Alpspitze pic in the top left. That's exactly the view from Garmisch.

@VDB: You already did most of the hike from Hammersbach to Osterfelderkopf...only 600m more to go after dat.

Yep the KE2 is the one that killed my knees coming down.

@canuck So no harness necessary then? Not that you'd use one anyway ;-)

No harness is required...at all. Trust me. We are not climbing Mt. Everest here.

although it'll feel like it, after all that beer...

@canuck - remeber, where not all crazy canadians out here. When we did that hike to oberfelskopf a couple of month ago the alpspitze looked still very high and not such an easy climb. But reckon it might be something to try.

Anythings possible...but you have to BELIEVE. Haven't you seen the movie Rudy? C'mon??

On the serious side...It's 600m height difference from Osterfelderkopf, but it's easy if we stop for a bit of a break before...

reckon the heigth or the distance will be no problem for me, but i don't want to get stuck somewhere without climbing equipment if it turns out it might be useful after all. Did some climbing a couple of years back, and i know it can get nasty then. But you've been there so i'll trust your judgement on this.

and yes i BELIEVE - aim high to reach high

I'd like to join the group if you don't mind. I'll be in Ulm that weekend so I would have to meet you down there instead of Munich. I assume there would be a place to meet the group at Alpspitze.

I'd love to tag along... miss climbing around Sedona (in Arizona) so a great climb would be great.

Too bad I left my hiking boots back in the States... either have to get them shipped out or buy some new ones here.

Any guess as to the temp at the top? My jackets are pretty lightweight (Hey, I'm from California )

@ anabi - as canuck already said, there could be snow up top - actually there is probably snow right now. Zugspitze (296x?) has around 50cm right now and it is in the same area

check out steinmandl

don't know exactly yet, but I might be up for it

cable car down from Osterfelderkopf is cool but at 14 € it's not exactly cheap. That's at least what I paid a few weeks ago.

hey, are people still thinking of doing this hike?
jeeves convinced me yesterday that it's (probably) a good idea

weather not looking too awesome though (12 C and rain/sunny patches)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0053

but quite often it's cloudy in munich and sunny in the hills. though l guess that the top of the alpspitze is not somewhere to be during a storm. backup plan needed in case it rains, canuck?

Um, yeah. I've been watching the weather forecasts lately. Wetteonline.de looks great (21C, party sunny) for Sunday. Looks like it'll rain alot tomorrow and Friday and it should clear up a bit on Saturday. I'll post more after lunch...

ok, hope your weather site is going to be more accurate than mine...

canuck is more optimistic. He trust sites that shows more temp and sunny
I can not come but I will pray for good weather for you guys.

Well the way it's looking at the moment it's going to be wet on Sunday and with lower temps. Keep praying for us Brother Ume.

I'm still keen. Maybe a decision tomorrow (Fri) afternoon?

I'm climbing this mountain on Sunday...

[img]http://mitglied.lycos.de/gaehnchen/alpin/wetterstein/0108-alpspitze/alpspitze-02.jpg[/img]

I've decided to commit to this hike on Sunday unless of course there's a hurricane in Munich on Sunday morning. The weather shouldn't be that bad in Garmisch...and it should be warm around 15-18C, but obviously rain is possible. At least it's not snow...and probably aboot ~7C at the top

There are two ways basically to get to Garmisch:

1) Rent a car (or use someone elses)...This way is much faster since we can park directly at the base of the hike in Hammersbach.
2) Train (Trains leave for Garmisch at 6:31am and 7:30am, and they arrive in Garmisch at 7:55am and 8:55am...leave later is not an option due to the limited daylight). Sunrise is 7:26am with aboot 11hrs of 'sun'. I think it's a good idea to take the 6:31am train, since we need to take the last Gondola down at 4:30pm.

The idea is to leave from Hammersbach and climb up to Osterfelderkopf. There's a decent size hut with food and drinks here. Have a decent rest up there and then hike the next ~2hrs to the top. Climb back down to Osterfelderkopf and take the Alpsitze cable car down...since we'll be to tired to walk down...and it'll be too late probably. The idea after that is to head over the Irish Pub in Garmisch (which conveniently has a good Italian restaurant with cheap, good take-out Pizza next to it).

It'll be an early and a long day...but worth it...that pizza and pint will taste really good.

Who else is up for it? (Again, you need to be in decent condition for this hike...it's not for begínners..sorry) I'll be keeping an eye on the weather though...but I'm def going.

For people so far:

Me
Loupie (from Ulm)
SteveNZ?
BillyBob?
Greg? (Showem's Greg)
Jeeves?
Anabi?
Johnny Who?
JoolyBooly (doubtful)
VDB?

Tom17 has reserved his spot. Persimmon is not coming this time...

sorry, will take that offer of cheap transport to Wien... next time!

I'm still up for it but the weather would have to be really good. My back is still suffering from last Sunday's wanderings so I don't want to stress it again too soon if the conditions ain't right.

Greg is a no. He's kindly deigned to spend the day with me, as it's the only one I will get with him alone in 4 weeks.

well, if you'd cancel all those H3 orgies, you'd be alone more...

Oktoberfest comes but once a year. And compared to most (including the TT participant/observers), I was very reticent.

@Canuk - it sounds as if you may be a bit lonely on this one, unless, well it looks as if there might be a wimp option of taking the Alpsitze cable car up AND down, leaving the less hardy with only the 4 hour hike to the top and back to Osterfelderkopf. Would that be do-able?

@Kat: It's not a problem for you to take the Alpspitze cable car up and down...we could meet you at the top, have a bit of a break together... and then actually hit the summit. I'm hoping the weather is good...last time we did this hike it rained, snowed on the way up and then it was a picture, perfect clear day.

I'll be driving in from Ulm. I can meet in Hammersbach or if needed meet at the train station and drive some people from there to Hammersbach (I don't know the distance). I can carry 3 others and squeeze 4 if neccesary.