Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place vs. home

Posts tagged ‘Noerdliche Kalkalpen’

24T73 Eckbauer and Wamberg

E72

A tiny church stands proudly in a sub-alpine environment surrounded with meadows, with a winding road below and solid rock pyramids above. Not bad, actually, for a fixed-lens camera and digital zoom.

The hiking paths up to Wamberg are steep, but there is the option of the Eckbauer aerial-way or cable-car to cut some of that time and effort. I’m suitably lazy on the ascent, but the steep descent exacts a cost on wobbly knees and shaky hammies and calves. I’m gettin’ old, and I already recognize these “mountain days” are lookin’ scant for the future.


Ascent on the Eckbauer cable-car; over Olympic ski-jump & Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Morning light, facing west.
A private house on Eckbauer summit.
Haymaking above Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
I like to think of this as a gateway of sorts.
Wamberg, its church just in view.
A signature snap of Wamberg’s St. Anna, in haymaking season.
Wamberg, first mentioned in 12th-century AD/CE.
St. Anna inaugurated in 1720. Sundial reads “1pm”, at 1336h CEDT.
Facing west, the steep descent on foot begins.

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 19 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T72 Zugspitze, from 3 viewpoints in the arena

E71

Today, I‘m in the midst of Wetterstein mountains in the Northern Limestone Alps to gain new and different perspectives on the tall limestone massif that is the highest mountain in Germany. Here at the border region, it’s easy to get around by train between Germany’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Austria’s Lermoos.

  1. 🇩🇪 Eibsee lake, 973 metres above sea level.
  2. 🇦🇹 Grubighütte, 2050 metres above sea level.
  3. 🇦🇹 Lermoos’ Loisachweg, 1000 metres above sea level.

Eibsee

Eibsee cable car to Zugspitze: 1st ascent of the day, only for aerialway- & summit-employees.
730am, quiet and chill on the lake; Zugspitze at centre-right.

Grubighütte

Ascent on the Grubig II.
View of Zugspitze massif from the Grubig II mountain station, next to the Grubig lodge.
Thunderhead forming over Zugspitze; next set of photos below are from the area of light green in the valley floor below (between Lermoos and Ehrwald).

Loisachweg

The view from Lermoos: Alps formed by the northerly drift by continental Africa into continental Europe.
Lermooser Moos (Lermoos Marsh): river marsh plains here and graded gravel roads are ideal for hiking and biking.
The grey-white chalky rock that is limestone means that the rock seen elevated today was once sitting at the bottom of an ancient ocean.

I surpassed 700 km of total walking distance on travel day 72. I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 18 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T71 The humble gorge of the Partnach

(E70)

I’ve been here in town a half-dozen times since 2002, but I’d never wandered into the cool misty roaring depths of the Partnach river gorge, known also as the Partnachklamm. That all changed today.

Erosion starts slow in a trickle. But flowing water is patient, and begins to wear a small narrow groove into “impenetrable” rock. Ten thousand years later, the groove is a mighty gorge, about 1 kilometre (0.6 mile) long with walls as deep/high as 85 metres (280 feet).


The walk up.
Established for visitors 1910-1912.
The drama of light and shadow, splashes of colour, depth, height.
A massive roar.

There’s city bus service from Garmisch-Partenkirchen train station to the Olympic ski-jump stadium, but the one-way walk is about 5 km from the train station to the far-end (south) gate of the gorge. To enter the gorge proper, the admittance charge is 10€ (2024). Conditions “inside” can be dark, wet, and much cooler.

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 17 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T70 From Vienna to Garmisch-Partenkirchen

(E69 V36)

Travel day 70, Euro day 69, and Vienna day 36. Morning wake-up in Vienna’s 6., and I’m sleeping tonight among the Wetterstein mountains.

Euro24 in Germany is done and dusted, although I didn’t watch any of the matches because I’d already spent time and energy on the ICC T20 World Cup and that extraordinary up-and-down final between India and South Africa. Time to head back into Germany for the third and final leg: but first, the mountains.


Wien Hauptbahnhof: Südtiroler Platz.
Inside the main (west) entrance, 1211pm.
See ya, Vienna!
RJX62: Budapest – Wien – München.
After departing Salzburg, the train crosses the Saalach river near Freilassing; also, crossing the international border east-to-west, from Austria (left) into Germany (right).
6.5 hours after leaving Vienna, the familiar Waxenstein, Riffelspitze, and Zugspitze peaks come into view (at left), as I arrive finally in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Another familiar sight after previous stays: facing north to Kramerspitz (left).
Summertime dusk at 925pm.

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 16 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

My GaPa: the Wank (vistas) over Werdenfelser Land

Before the reader goes on a titter, the German word “Wank” is likely related to old-Bavarian or Bairisch Wang/Weng, meaning “meadow on a slope” or “an opening in the forest”. The modern definition of the German verb “wanken” is “to stumble” or “to stagger.”

I’ve previously described southern Bavaria’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GaPa) and the natural beauty on offer around town. I’ve also made the ascent to Zugspitze a couple of times, particularly in glorious winter conditions. The return journey between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Zugspitze isn’t cheap, but I was very glad to see the Alps in 5 different countries; the interested visitor should check the summit webcams for weather conditions before heading up.

If you want a cheaper alternative, there are mountain views to be had at Wank, an 1800-metre tall “hill” just north of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Here are some equally beautiful views from the Wank summit on a visit during a warm afternoon in late-May.


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