Fotoeins Friday: top of Austria from the top of Germany
For over ten years, I’d been trying to confirm claims of naked-eye sightings (and subsequent photographic evidence) of Italy from Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany at 2962 metres. Not only did I verify the claim, but I also sighted additional mountain peaks of the Alps in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
The next question was whether I could see the highest peak in Austria. With Google Maps (see below), I determined a line-of-sight distance of 135 kilometres from Zugspitze to Grossglockner. I had been wise to use both wide- and zoom-lenses to cover as much of the horizon from the southeast through the south and over to the northwest.
Photo (1) above is at azimuth 105 degrees (east-southeast) at 70mm focal length. The area framed in a red solid line is shown in the next photo, and the area framed in a white dashed line includes peaks of the Nordkette (North Chain) towering over the city of Innsbruck. Labeled are the Wettersteinhauptkamm ridge along the Austria-Germany border, the Jubilämsgrat ridge descending from the Zugspitze summit, and the Gletscherbahn (glacier cable car) between summit and plateau 300 metres below.
With an optical-mechanical zoom at 300mm focal length, photo (2) below* shows Grossglockner (3798 metres), Austria’s highest peak, and Grossvenediger (3657 metres). Both peaks lie in the Hohe Tauern mountain range in the central eastern Alps.
Photo (2): Grossglockner is Austria’s highest mountain at a height of 3798 metres (12461 feet) above sea-level.
Click the arrow-window icon at the upper-left corner of the map below for the legend.
* I made both photos on 25 February 2017 with the Canon 6D, 70-300 glass, and settings: 1/1000-sec, f/16, ISO500, and 70mm/300mm focal lengths; beide Fotoaufnahmen sind mit Wasserzeichen versehen worden. I made extensive use of Google Earth, Google Maps, Alpenwelt Karwendel, AMAP Austria (from BEV Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen), and Open Topo Map. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-bco.
Fotoeins Fotografie 
4 Responses to “Fotoeins Friday: top of Austria from the top of Germany”
Ah, such beautiful panoramic views, I miss them, Believe it or not, as true born Bavarian, living the first 38 years in Munich, I had never been on the Zugspitze. Though I have climbed up the Alpspitze and have been up to so many uncountable mountains.
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Hi, Cornelia. Although it’s a lot of “detective” work, I’ve enjoyed figuring out the mountain peaks I sighted and photographed on Zugspitze. And in truth, it is not cheap to go up to the Zugspitze summit, either by Zahnradbahn from Garmisch-Partenkirchen or the Seilbahn from Eibsee. People really have to ask themselves: do they really want to go up if the skies are overcast or if the summit is buried in cloud? If there’s snow up top, then skiers and snowboarders will always say ‘yes’ 😄 I would like to return to the Alps when it’s “warm and green” to enjoy some of the many many hikes. I also imagine you have some very good memories of climbing a lot of the Alps! 😊 Thanks again for reading and for your comment!
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Thank you so much for sharing the beauty of the Alps and for responding. I prefer the warm and green too and all those flowers blooming.
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I’d like to see for myself plenty of edelweiss and other flowers on those foothills and mountains 😄
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