Sleepless Hike for the Scheefernerkopf Sunrise
Our chair organizes yearly "scientific retreats" (where they isolate us and force us to be productive). This year it was happening at Schneefernerhaus, a research station on the slope of Zugspitze (2962 m), the highest peak of Germany.
After visiting Drachensee and Drachenkopf (2303 m), I was feeling like the Ehrwald area had much more to offer. Since there is a very well known route to Zugspitze (2962 m) over Gatterl (2024 m), I decided to take it instead of using the cable car with everyone else. Soon after I looked at the map and saw a via ferrata towards Schneefernerkopf (2874 m) not far from my destination, so the plan changed. I've never seen the sunrise on a high mountain, so I took this obligatory trip as a chance to fulfill a long-standing dream of mine.
I set off from Ehrwald at 20:30, arriving by a surprisingly punctual train. At first, I kept meeting other hikers on the road, returning from their trips. Some even asked me about my route, being very surprised that I planned to hike overnight. My body wasn't prepared to start hiking so late. The first few kilometers were quite rough, with me pushing through despite getting out of breath every few minutes.
As I kept going, the sky turned dark and the nature went to sleep. I still met a few hikers with flashlights running down from their hikes in the area, but by the time I reached Ehrwalder Almbahn Bergstation, I was the only one there apart from the cows.
After I passed the station and looked at all the cows grazing around despite the late hour, I planned to go to Gatterl (2024 m). However, I found the Issentalköpfl (1925 m) summit not far from my route, and my inner completionist screamed at me to go there too. To improve my peak bagging for the Hiking Web, I climbed a random steep ski slope there, stepping over small streams and mud, and reached the plateau. The trail there was awful. Overgrown with spruce trees and bushes, I had to climb through them, scratching myself all over.
As I reached the supposed peak and found no cross in the dark, I turned around and jumped from surprise seeing a bunch of cows around. Knowing how many hikers die yearly from them, I made sure to be careful and walk as far away from them as possible.
Afterward, I continued towards Am Brand (2116 m). By this point the clouds have descended onto the slopes and my visibility dropped to a few meters in front, even on the most powerful setting of the headlamp.
The saddle of Am Brand (2116 m) was uneventful, apart from me avoiding yet more cows along the way. I kept going and eventually reached Feldernjöchl (2045 m), my last chance to turn around and walk back. I was feeling largely fine, so I decided to continue the hike.
Soon after, I saw a pair of dog-like eyes staring at me from 10 meters away. It was a wild fox on the hunt. After staring at each other for some time, the fox finally decided to leave and rushed uphill perpendicular to the road I was using.
After the last saddle, the road quickly turned into a via ferrata. It was quite an easy one despite the darkness, and it was easily doable with no equipment (that I was too lazy to pull out of my backpack). After some more walking, I reached the gate at Gatterl (2024 m), after passing which I have officially walked onto the Zugspitzplatt.
The trail from here was very easy, without significant elevation changes. I was getting quite hungry and didn't have any sense of distance, so after reaching a small place of worship on the way I decided to take a break at a bench for some snacks.
I kept walking and walking, fighting my eyes closing and me falling asleep as I stood, and eventually I saw a light in the distance. Since there was nothing else around, it was obviously Knorrhütte (2052 m). I kept going there and some 30 minutes later reached the hut. The trail connects to it slightly above the entrance, and I was too lazy to go down, so I just took a breather and kept hiking. This point happened around 03:00.
The section between Knorrhütte (2052 m) and Sonnalpin (2588 m) is one of the longest during this hike. It took me about 2 hours to hike between these points since I didn't see the poorly marked route and had to occasionally climb the slippery moist gravel. I kept walking and at some point started seeing the light of the cable car station at the top of Zugspitze (2962 m).
Another 30 minutes and I also started seeing Sonnalpin (2588 m), although at that point only through the night mode on my camera. After some more wrong turns and climbing I reached the plateau cable car station and took a break. There, I saw Schneefernerhaus, my final destination for the day. I knew that now was the only chance for me to reach any peaks, since I won't be able to step out of work later otherwise.
I took one last look at the Reintal valley that I hiked in the past. Despite the beauty of the sunrise and the clouds flowing through the plains, I was facing away from them, starting my climb of Schneefernerkopf (2874 m).
The climb at 05:00 started weird, I couldn't find the right way up onto the ridge. On Sunday, before heading out, I checked a few YouTube videos of people climbing the peak, so I had some idea of where to go. Still, being there in-person was tougher. Using my shoe spikes to climb over the ice and snow of the last few remaining glaciers, I reached Schneefernerscharte (2699 m) and started my way up.
After another 30 minutes of climbing, I finally reached the fake summit. There was a cross at 2836 m pointing towards Austria, making it visible from below. It was also the entrance point to the "New World" ski tour route that descends from Zugspitze (2962 m) down to Ehrwald. After taking some photos, I continued uphill on the unsecured ridge trail and reached the summit at roughly 05:40.
The route back was uneventful. Although climbing up I felt scared for the way down, in reality it was very doable, especially if you clip to the provided cables. When I reached the saddle and walked onto the glacier again, I was relieved that the hike was coming to an end. Still, I was overly happy about this trip, it being one of the best experiences I've had so far. I then reached Sonnalpin, rested for a few hours, then met the others and took the cable car to Schneefernerhaus.
Although I wouldn't recommend doing the whole hike at night like I did, the route from Ehrwald is by far the easiest route to the top of Zugspitze (2962 m). If you take a few liters of water, some warm clothes (the temparature drops to 2 degrees Celsius at some points), and some snacks, this route is achievable for people of quite varying skill levels. I have to warn you about the via ferrata section near the top though. Do NOT attempt it without equipment!
P.S. I decided to include some photos from Schneefernerhaus too below.
Although I was practically sleeping for the next two days, I did manage to sneak out and do some exploring at night on Monday. We got to see most of the station, including the passenger and cargo cog train tunnels, radioactive laboratories, seismic sensors and more.
We even got to visit the rooftops of the building and see the Milky Way one more time without any light pollution. It was definitely a trip worth remembering.
On the way back we visited the peak and travelled down to Eibsee, where we then took the train home.