Coping with forecast rain when skiing in Garmisch

So I’m headed down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a birthday ski weekend on Saturday and Sunday. But with the forecasts monsoon, I’m looking for a little local knowledge for where exactly to head to.

Had conditions been perfect, I’d have done one day on the Dammkar in Mittenwald, with the second day in Lermoos, the Classic Area or the Laberbahn in Oberammergau depending on how I felt.

With heavy rain coming for the valley and heavy snow farther up, the Dammkar and Laberbahn are likely off the table. The Classic Area pretty much sucks if the Talabfahrt is a washout and the Alpenspitze area gets closed due to wind. And the Zugspitze is the last place I want to be in a whiteout.

So where do I go? The top part of Lermoos could be in good shape. The single chair probably closes in the wind, but the six man bubble should be running. Berwang may be a good option with its higher base. The area is 90% useless, but the lift on the far end of the village (Rosskopf?) has some pretty good terrain. It’s mostly in the trees, too, which helps with visibility. What about Seefeld? I’ve never been and it looks pretty limited, but again, trees are good if the visibility is bad. But is it high enough? Am I missing anything?

Any thoughts?

Skiing this weekend is unfortunately going to suck. High winds, and high freezing temperatures (maybe over 3000m in some areas). I don't have anything to suggest really, but good luck. It's lucky we had a great start this season or it could be worse up there than last year. Since the start of December we've either had Föhn or high pressure systems, both of which are not good for snow.

I would not be so pessimistic, here is the forecast (in german)

So Sunday might be good. Hopefully the freezing level drops while there is still some precipitation around. The wind is still a high, though.

Where do I ski on tropical Saturday, then?

Ami
I would try the classic area. conditions are good up there and you can ski down in to the valley. They had the snow canons blowing 24/7 while we had the cold temperatures. The Dreh(Kochelberg) and the Kandahar are fine, maybe a bit on the icy side in the lower part due to numerous people taking the same line...
Seefeld is a good possibility. You can ski on both sides of the town. I prefer the Rosshütte though

Seefeld might not be too bad because it's pretty high, the town is at 1200m. Saying that, I went through there on Friday last week, and it didn't look that great.. I was around Innsbruck from Tuesday to Friday last week, and there was snow at times down to about 700m. However, anything under 1500m was icey, and I mean icey. Like I've never seen before, solid like a rock.

Above 2000m, the snow was excellent. In between 1500m and 2000m it was variable. If it wasn't going to be blowing a gale, I'd tell you just to head as high as you can. Drive to Hintertux or Stubai or even ski the glacier at Garmisch. But if there's a storm that would be out.

I'm relying on the train anyway, so anything too far away is out. I've even briefly considered getting the 6:30 am train to Innsbruck, but that's probably unrealistic. And besides, that either gets me to Stubai with the ski bus at 10:00 or Axamer Lizum at 9:30. I don't really like Stubai to begin with, and certainly not in a storm. Axamer Lizum would probably be my best option looking just at the skiing I can get to, but I don't think it's worth getting up for a 6:30 train from Garmisch.

Tell me about Seefeld. It looks pretty limited on the piste map. But if it allows me to get above the rain, but stay mostly in the trees, I'd consider it. My girlfriend plans on cross country skiing, so she will almost certainly be there.

The Classic Area tops out at just over 2000 m. That and the prospect of the Alpenspitze and Hochalm getting closed by the wind has me worried.

Lermoos is a little higher, so maybe a better option.

Or I could just muddle my way from hut to hut in the Classic Area drinking lots of Jagertee and Weissbier.

I have been wanting to ski the Dammkar for a very long time now, but it just doesn't seem to work out for me. Damn. Maybe next year.

I'm not a huge fan of Seefeld. It's as expensive as many big resorts, but it's really not that large. They have two hills. One is the Rosshuette, which is the one I'd ski if I went down there. The other one, Gswandskopf (or something equally difficult to spell), it full of beginner runs.

The forecast for the weekend is now looking a little better in my opinion. Freezing levels will be high, but Sunday should be sunny and Saturday not too bad. Winds look a lot better now, and there will be quite a bit of snow above 1500m before the weekend.

You could probably just stick to your initial plans now.

Well I'm back from my weekend in the mountains, and it certainly had its highlights and lowlights. But at least the rain stayed away.

Saturday morning I woke up early and headed for the Karwendelbahn, curious to see just how high up the snow line was from Friday night's precip. I was on the first lift up with a grand total of two other people after having negotiated a reduced 'trial' price from the nice lady who runs the kasse. I can safely say I've never been so scared on skis before. The first few hundred meters were great. Clearly above the snow line and quite a lot of fresh, wind-packed powder. But after a few turns it was a breakable rain crust, followed by boiler plate ice, followed by slush, followed by more boiler plate ice, followed by a 15 minute hike out. In good conditions that must be one awesome ski route. In the conditions on Saturday it was just bad.

I then spent the afternoon in the Classic Area, mostly Alpenspitze, taking things relatively easy. The snow was in good shape and there is some decent skiing to be had, but wow is the BZB a great example of how not to run a ski resort. You could hardly design a worse lift system if you tried. The bottom third of the mountain being either slush or just exposed earth didn't help, either.

Sunday I went to Lermoos, and it was just spectacular. Tons of snow at the top and plenty of fantastic skiing. I did laps on the 6-pack lift in the bumps under the lift and over on the 1-man lift accessing the terrain off to the skier's left from the lift. Lermoos has to be one of the best ski areas that nobody has heard of (unless your Dutch, the place is full of Dutch people).

Anyway, it was a great weekend all in all.

Pleased to hear you enjoyed your weekend. One thing that occurred to me was to point out that lots of the locals arrange their weekends on Weds/Thurs and if the weather forecast is bad then many stay away from the hills. If you're capable of being a bit more spontaneous then you can take advantage of what's actually happening and enjoy the empty(er) pistes when the forecast is wrong and the weather turns out great. The worst possible ski weekends are the ones when on Tuesday any of the papers says that 'record snow falls predicted' or 'fantastically good ski conditions expected'.

Where is the Alpenspitze??

'Spitze' means 'peak'. Zugspitze is the highest point/peak in Germany. Alpenspitze (near to Zugspitze) is one of those mountain peaks in Garmisch/Alps in (Southern) Germany.

Oh you mean the Alpspitze, sorry didn't click I thought maybe it was another area around Mittenwald, am looking for ideas on where to go when we are there next week.

Nope, its 'AlpenSpitze'. If you are travelling by your own vehicle and if you have time, check out 'Ettal', 'Linderhof', 'Oberammergau', etc places. If you can afford to travel more , you can also look at 'Neuschwanstein', et al.

Also, Innsbruck(Austria) aint that far from Garmisch. I guess you can indeed go to Innsbruck from Zugspitze. (From Zugspitze, you have those cable cars which take you on to the other side of German border(Austria) and from there, you can go to Innsbruck. (Donno if you can directly go to Innsbruck from Zugspitze).

Also, check this other TT link on which I provided some other info : Weekend Road Trips From Munich

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I beg to differ, but I assume you mean this area/range http://www.alpspitze.de/

Thanks for the tips on where to go, I am very familiar with Garmisch and surrounding areas, just haven't ever really skied the Mittenwald area, we always went to Austria/Italy when skiing elsewhere. Actually I haven't skied many places (other than Garmisch) in Germany at all .

I am taking a friend this time and was going to take her through the Partnach, but it appears to be closed due to mild weather, might see if she fancy's Munich instead.

I think you can still walk through/around that partnach area. I was there last month and it wasnt closed. But it depends on how shitty the weather is and also the timings. You could be able to do that if you can plan it well before it gets dark in the eve. I couldnt make it as it was gettin' dark and we had to move somewhere else. I heard its cool and it has a path through the mountains. Also, walk around 'Eibsee' if you have time. Eibsee looks cool from the 'Top Of Germany'.

I indeed mean the Alpspitze, which are the upper slopes in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Classic-Area.


The cable car down from the Zugspitze puts you in Ehrwald, which is nowhere near Innsbruck, and indeed the fastest way to get to Innsbruck from there would most likely involve driving back to Garmisch. A cable car linking the Zugspitze and Innsbruck would be (I'm guessing) about 40 km long.


Where to ski depends on what kind of skier you are. If you are a good skier and like ungroomed snow, Mittenwald would be great in good conditions. There is also a single cable car in Oberammergau called the Laberbahn that is somewhat shorter but apparently steeper. I haven't had the pleasure yet. As I mentioned above, I can also definitely recommend Lermoos, just over the border in Austria.

As I said I am very familiar with Garmisch, I lived there for xx many years, but (and I know this is strange) only skied in Mittenwald once and can't remember the name of the place which is why I asked, I have skied Lermoos, Biberweir & all the other close places in Austria. But anyway we are really going to get away and relax & my friend has decided she doesn't really want to go skiing now, she is a beginner anyway. So we will probably have a wander through the Partnach which is open again and have a look at the Jeep challenge, whatever the hell that is, and of course eat, drink and be merry.

Anyhoo thanks for the info, will try Mittenwald sometime when there is a little more snow.

It's probably the challenge not to look like a pretentious tosser when in a wanky 4x4.

Yeah you're probly right, but it's at Richard Strauss platz, which is right by the kongresshaus & a pretty small area, so can't imagine what kind of course they can "build" there!