Iron Age

The Eisenzeit route winds its way through the mighty north face of the Zugspitze, combining alpine terrain, easy to moderate climbing and a wealth of history to create a rather special mountain tour. We follow in the footsteps of the tunnel builders who worked their way right through the face of the mountain here in the 1920s: old adits, rusty ladders, concrete rubble, wire ropes, rails, tools and relics from a time when this route was not yet an adventure, but simply part of everyday work. The climbing reaches up to Grade 4, mostly a little easier, but always in challenging, high-alpine terrain. Above us lies the north face, below us the turquoise waters of the Eibsee, and in between, a real ‘Eiger North Face light’ feeling in the old tunnel adits. The final few metres lead up the via ferrata to the summit of the Zugspitze. And because the route is long enough as it is, we then take the cable car back down into the valley – easy on the knees.