I'm due to take a guided day tour to Zugspitze next week but have previously been recommended to pick a visit for a day with clear weather.

The furthest ahead I can see right now is the day ahead and the conditions are -10C on the glacier, -14C at the summit, with strong 69km/h winds and up to 1km visibility.

As someone coming from a warm climate with few mountains, could someone shed some light as to what would be considered 'good' conditions to go to Zugspitze just for sightseeing (I don't ski or snowboard)?

Is 1km of visibility ok?

I can cancel the tour up to 24h ahead so trying to ascertain what conditions to look out for so that closer to the date I can make alternate plans if needed.

Hi victoriainwanderland,

Are you certain that your best option is to take a guided tour? This is dead-easy to do on your own. I live in Garmisch, which is near the Zugspitze, and weather reports are not accurate so far in advance; they are usually only accurate about 1 or 2 days in advance in the mountains.

I would say that, no, 1 km of visibility won't be worth the cost of the ascent. You don't want to spend your money and go stand inside of a cloud, or with clouds limiting your views.

The best thing to do is wait until you wake up to clear skies, check the webcam to make sure the skies are also clear at the Zugspitze, then immediately hop on the train to the mountain. The German train (DB) offers a great deal from Munich -- the Garmisch Ski Ticket (no, you don't have to ski to use it). It includes transportation from Munich to the Zugspitze and return, for one price. Unfortunately the information is only in German, but here's the info translated by my browser:



Have fun as you plan!

s

I did look into doing it on my own but chose the tour for the convenience. I can cancel until 9:00 the day before so I'm thinking I will check the weather early the day before and cancel if the weather isn't looking good.

Do you have any recommendations regarding visibility to aim for?

Hallo again,

Sorry, I don't have that information in figures. I've always checked the webcams to see what the visibility is like. Google says clear visibility is 100 miles or around 150 km, so I'd aim for that -- you really want to be able to see the mountains into Austria & Italy.

Let us know how it went!

s

Ditto what swandav says, we've been up there a few times, and tend to just watch the weather then pick the best day we can.

Good luck - and dress warmly - the wind at the top can be extremely cold!

Didn't even know there was a tour, we've always gone on our own, very easy.