Zugspitze Ski Season Opens 27 November: Germany's Highest Slopes as a Day Trip From Munich

Opening day on the glacier

Skiing on the Zugspitze starts on 27 November and is planned to run until 2 May. Snow up there is about as reliable as Bavaria gets. The bowl of the Zugspitzplatt lies right under the summit, so it keeps its cover while the lower hills are still green.

Take the RB 6 or RE 61 from München Hbf to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which takes 1 hour 10 to 1 hour 30. The glacier ticket includes the ride up. You can go by cog railway through the inside of the mountain, or by the Seilbahn Zugspitze cable car. It also covers the Gletscherbahn once you are on the plateau. Buy it online at €70.50 instead of €78.00 at the desk.

One warning. There are no trees on the plateau, so in a whiteout you ski in a white room with nothing to see. If the forecast is bad, go lower.

Garmisch-Classic, the lower area on the same mountain, opens in mid-December and runs to 29 March. A day there is €69.00 online or €72.00 at the desk. Morning passes aren't sold from 24 December to 10 January or from 6 to 14 February, so over the holidays you're buying a full day. A free ski bus runs from the station to the Hausberg valley station.

The same view from Ehrwald

Ehrwalder Almbahn takes you up to a broad plateau on the Austrian side. There are hay-barn huts on it and the Wetterstein wall straight ahead. A day pass is €70.50, a half day is €56.50, and children aged 6 to 15 pay €35.50. The same ticket covers the Wettersteinbahnen at Ehrwald, Lermoos Grubigstein and Biberwier Marienberg. It does not cover the Zugspitzplatt, which is a separate pass.

Queues are lighter here than on the glacier opposite, and there's a snowpark, a family park and winter hiking trails for anyone who doesn't ski. Direct RB 60 trains run from München Hbf to Ehrwald Zugspitzbahn in about two hours, or it's 1 hour 40 by car.

Brauneck by train

Brauneck is the mountain Munich skis after work. The season starts on 5 December and should run to 31 March. Lifts run from 08:15 to 16:30. A day pass is €55.00 plus a €3 deposit on the chip card, a morning pass to noon is €46.00, and two hours is €42.00. The gondola climbs straight out of Lenggries village, and the ridge at the top is strung with timber huts, which is half the reason people go.

The easiest ticket is the MVV Skipass at €67.00, which bundles the lift pass with the train from Munich and the bus to the valley station. The train takes about 1 hour 20. The base is at 700 m, so in a mild winter the lower runs get thin. Night skiing on the Streidlhang runs Tuesday to Saturday from 19:00 to 22:00.

Spitzingsee and Sudelfeld

Spitzingsee–Tegernsee opens on 5 December and is the cheapest full day of the local hills at €53.00, plus the €3 card deposit. The lifts start from a snowed-in hamlet above the lake. If you only want part of a day, the happy-hour pass from 14:00 is €24.00, and from 13 January every Wednesday is €39.00, apart from Ash Wednesday. The MVV Skipass covers the lift pass, the train to Schliersee and the bus up. Runs here are short, so a strong skier will have seen it all by lunch.

Skiparadies Sudelfeld above Bayrischzell has the gentlest terrain of the lot, wide and rolling, which is why families keep going back. The season opens on Sunday 13 December, but the first day of lifts isn't fixed yet. A day is €55.00, an afternoon from 12:00 is €45.00 and a happy-hour pass from 14:30 is €24.00, all plus the card deposit. Lifts run 08:30 to 16:30, closing at 15:00 on Christmas Eve. Get the train to Bayrischzell and the ski bus up, or buy the MVV Skipass for the whole journey. The pistes are closed from 18:00 to 08:00 because grooming is done with a winch cable, so stay off them after dark. Ski touring evenings run on Wednesdays from 18:00 to 22:00.

Oberjoch

Oberjoch in the Allgäu should start around 11 December. It holds snow well for its size. A day pass is €55.00, dropping to €51.50 each from 10 people, or €41.00 for a morning or afternoon. The children's and beginner parks are a real strength if you're learning. Thursday is night skiing from 17:30 to 21:00, at €28.00 for a night pass or €12.00 added to a day ticket.

The journey is the catch. Take the RE 76 or RE 17 to Sonthofen, then a bus up to Bad Hindelang and Oberjoch, and allow around two and a half hours each way. If you're on trains and want to be back in Munich early, pick a closer hill.

Night skiing at Hocheck

Hocheck Oberaudorf is small, and the reason to go is after dark. Floodlit skiing runs Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 18:30 to 21:00. The 3 km toboggan run goes down through the forest to the village, and it stays lit until 22:30. One evening ticket covers both, and parking is free from 18:00.

This season's prices aren't out yet. Last season an adult evening ticket was €24.50 and a day ticket from 09:15 was €34.50. Oberaudorf has its own station on the Munich to Kufstein line, about an hour from the city, with trains roughly hourly. Skiing should start in mid-December.

Two drives into Tyrol

Hochalmlifte Christlum at Achenkirch is the one to drive to when the Bavarian hills are packed. The pistes face north through spruce above the Achensee, so they hold snow when everything closer to Munich looks bare. A day ticket is €69.00, children aged 6 to 15 pay €37.00, and a late ticket from 15:00 is €25.00. Lifts run 08:30 to 16:00. Take the A8 to the Holzkirchen exit and then 57 km on, so about an hour and a half from central Munich. Parking at the base is paid. Without a car, leave this one out, as public transport there is slow.

Ski Juwel Alpbachtal Wildschönau is the biggest option here. It's two valleys joined by one cable car, with the dark-timber village of Alpbach at one end. The Schatzberg and Wiedersberger Horn lifts open on 4 December and most main lifts run to 4 April. A day pass is €71.50 in high season and €64.50 in low season. Leave the A12 at Kramsach for the Alpbach side, roughly an hour and a half from Munich. The link between the two valleys only opens in mid-December, so go after that if you want both.

Before you go

Several of these opening dates can still move, so check before you go, and buy lift passes online where the operator sells them that way. See the Munich guide and the Munich hotel search.