Table of contents
- Route
- Train to Garmisch
- Partnachklamm
- The ascent
- Teufelsgsaß
- Pavilion overlooking the Reintal
- Königshaus am Schachen
- Schachenhaus
- Alpengarten auf dem Schachen
- The descent
Route
To see the exact route and details, check out my Komoot route for this hike:
Train to Garmisch
On a Tuesday morning, we took the train from Munich to Bahnhof Garmisch-Partenkirchen and arrived shortly before 10:00.
Out initial plan was to take the bus from Bahnhof Garmisch to the Skistadion. But just as we stepped out of the train station, we saw the bus departing.
First learning of the day: The bus to Skistadion only goes once per hour. I had thought it goes like every 15 minutes.
Not too big of a deal though. The walk from the central station to Skistadion just takes about 30 minutes. And the weather was great. So, off we went (after grabbing some breakfast at the café).
At around 11:00, we arrived at the Skistadion and started our walk up to the Partnachklamm entrance.
Partnachklamm
The Partnach Gorge is always worth a visit, although it can get quite crowded on sunny days. It’s up to 80 meters deep, and is impressive to walk through.
Tickets are 10€ per adult (as of June 2024; check here for current prices).
Even though the gorge is just ~700 meters long, we took about 30 minutes to get through. After the exit, our route leads us along the Partnach.
Cool to see: The point where the crystal-blue Partnach water meets the muddy-brown water of the Ferchenbach.
Following along the Partnach, the path for the next two hours was a wide, boring gravel road. There were even some cars of local workers or rangers driving there. Not “idyllic” by any means.
On a positive note: With the blue river always to our side, we had some great views – and the sound of rippling water makes for a calming travel companion.
At about 14:00, after following the Partnach for ~2 hours, we reached the crossway where the actual ascent up to the Schachen (and Schachenhaus) starts. Here, we eventually left the Partnach behind us and took a left turn.
The ascent
What starts out as an innocent forest path, quickly gets steeper and steeper, with big steps.
Here’s where I made two (beginner) mistakes:
- I lead the way.
- I walked way too fast when starting out.
Even though my mom has great fitness for her age, I’m the faster walker of us. Therefore, I should’ve let her go first to set a pace that’s comfortable for her. Instead, I stormed ahead like an idiot.
Needless to say, after the first 20 minutes we were already out of breath. And the hardest part was yet to come…
After covering the first 350 meters of altitude (= ~1 hour of walking) from the last crossway, we reached the tree seen above. Here, the route makes us take another left turn before the proper action starts: the Teufelsgsaß.
Teufelsgsaß
We were greeted by the first (of many) tricky passages, secured with metal ropes to hold onto. This is where most beginners would probably turn around (and where my mom asked me if I’m sure that we’re still on the right path).
In terms of technical difficulty, it doesn’t get easier from here on. You’ll have to take lots of steps where the consequence of a misstep would be… unpleasant to say the least. Huge drop to your side.
What made it even worse for us: it started raining. Not much. But enough to make some of the rocks you need to step on (like the one below) way too slippery for comfort.
In addition to the difficult path, a storm started brewing in the mountain range next to us. For the sake of our (and especially my mom’s) calmness, I would’ve definitely preferred the Partnach’s ripple over rumbling sounds of thunder in our backs.
At least whenever we took a break – and we took lots of breaks – we could turn around and get an amazing view over the Reintal.
Another positive thing to note: We had the whole Teufelsgsaß to ourselves that day. We didn’t encounter a single soul walking up there.
The fun wasn’t over though. More parts followed where we needed all the arms and legs we got. At one of the most terrifying spots, there are just a couple of iron rungs sticking out of the rock that you have to climb up.
By this point at the latest, I felt bad for pushing my mom to her absolute limits; mentally and physically. I hadn’t properly checked the route’s details and absolutely underestimated its difficulty. But despite being exhausted and nervous, she handled it like a champ!
After that last part with the iron rungs, it was around 17:00. We had been crawling up the Teufelsgsaß for almost 3 hours by now – and had covered 750 meters of altitude. Our water bottles were empty, with the sun beating down on us in the humid air caused by the previous rain.
Luckily, we were almost at the top. After another handful of turns and 50 meters of elevation, the path slowly leveled out. And one of the highlights of this hike was now in sight: the pavilion with a breathtaking view over the Reintal.
Pavilion overlooking the Reintal
At 1860 meters altitude, you have an amazing view over the whole Reintal, along the Partnach and up to the Zugspitzplatt and Schneeferner, with the Hochblassen and Alpspitze to the right.
After a 3,5 hour-long ascent, we arrived there at around 17:30.
Despite (or maybe because of) the brutal ascent, it was still a very rewarding hike. Because even though the altitude isn’t high, and you’re not on any mountain peak, it’s still one of the greatest views I’ve had in the Wettersteingebirge.
From the pavilion we could already see the next highlight of the hike: the Königshaus am Schachen (King’s House on Schachen). A small villa built by Ludwig II. of Bavaria in the 19th century.
Königshaus am Schachen
What looks like a rather modest chalet-style house from the outside, is actually extravagant and elaborately decorated inside – in typical Ludwig II. fashion, similar to what you find inside of Residenz München and Schloss Nymphenburg.
The whole upper floor is occupied by the Turkish Room, a grand hall in Moorish style that the king had designed after a palace near Istanbul. Oriental splendor, like a golden fountain, fine carpets, and colored glass windows make this room seem like straight out of One Thousand and One Nights.
Even though the villa is often described as a hunting lodge, it was mostly used by Ludwig II. for birthday and anniversary celebrations. On these occasions he actually reenacted Oriental parties: servants in Oriental clothing were placed in the hall, smoking hookahs and drinking tea. None of them were allowed to speak though, because the sound of Bavarian dialect would’ve completely destroyed the room’s impression.
I highly recommend taking part in one of the guided tours through the Königshaus, taking place every full hour. (5€ per person)
From the front door of the Königshaus, we could already see our final destination for the day: the Schachenhaus.
Schachenhaus
The Schachenhaus is the hut where we’ll be spending the night. It sits right below the Königshaus, at an altitude of 1876 meters, and originally served as a supply house for the royal residence.
Nowadays, the privately held hut is ran by family Leitenbauer and open for guests from end of May until fall.
The people there are super friendly, and everything is just like you would expect it from a hut in the Bavarian alps: Rustic decor with wooden paneling and checkered curtains, Bavarian home-style cooking, and watched over by two friendly house dogs (and a tortoise, although that was rather unexpected).
We arrived at the hut shortly before their kitchen closed. Yet, they still brought us any meals we wanted and were very caring, even offering that they could re-heat our meals later in case we wouldn’t finish them now.
For the night, we had made a reservation for one of the rooms located in the separate house next-door. It was a comfortable 3-person room. Since the Schachenhaus is not operated by the DAV (German Alpine Club), I think it’s not as popular and therefore easier to make reservations on short notice.
In June 2024, I paid 100€ total for the night in advance, consisting of 25€ per person (in our case: 3 x 25€ because we booked the whole 3-person room), and 12,50€ per person for breakfast which is always included when making a reservation. Check out their website for current prices.
Note that there’s no shower available; just sinks. Also, remember to bring a Hüttenschlafsack (sleeping bag liner) and enough cash. No card payments possible.
The breakfast buffet offered everything you might need, and you could eat as much as you wanted. There are a couple of outlets to charge your phone during the day. At night, however, the diesel generator that produces the electricity gets turned off. No more charging then!
After breakfast and clearing our room, we headed to another highlight of the hike: the Alpengarten.
Alpengarten auf dem Schachen
This alpine botanical garden sits right below the Königshaus and contains over 1,000 plant species from the Alps to the Himalayas. It is maintained by the Botanischer Garten München-Nymphenburg, open during the summer months daily from 8:00 to 17:00.
Each of the 42 plant beds is assigned to different geographical regions. And the plants are much more colorful than you’d expect so high up!
After strolling through the garden for a while and learning lots about alpine flowers, we grabbed our backpacks that we had stored at the hut and started the descent.
The descent
At around 11:45 on the 2nd day, we started the descent from Schachenhaus down the Königsweg.
After about 30 minutes, we made a quick detour to the Schachensee, a small lake hidden in the forest next to the Königsweg. Nothing too spectacular, and lots of mosquitoes!
A little further down the road, we ran into a herd of cows grazing next to the path.
Some time later, the drizzle turned into rain, and the rain turned into pouring downfall. From there on we just stormed forward, hoping that the rain would stop again.
But all the way down to the Partnachklamm – along the Königsweg and Kälbersteig – it was absolutely hailing rain, accompanied by loud thunder that was close enough to feel the ground vibrating.
The small path we were walking on wasn’t even a path anymore. It had turned into stream of water.
We were soaking wet. Everything that we had on us – even the spare clothes in our backpacks – was wet as if we had jumped into the lake earlier.
Initially, our plan was to skip Partnachklamm on the descent and instead take the path via Kaiserschmarrn Alm. But at that point I simply wanted to change into dry clothes and not catch a cold. So when we arrived at the Parnachklamm after a little more than 3 hours of running down from Schachenhaus, we bought another ticket for entrance to the gorge and stormed through there.
My phone was covered in water, and I didn’t have a single piece of dry clothing left to even wipe off the screen. I somehow managed to grab at least one video of the wild river that was now rushing down the gorge. As you can tell by the muffled sound, my phone’s microphone was still covered with water.
Back at where we started, the Skistadion, we used the hand dryers in one of the restaurants to try drying our spare clothes to a level where we could at least wear them again, before heading back to the train station.
In my case, however, that didn’t do the job. Even my spare clothes were too wet to be wearing them for another 2 hours.
So when we arrived in Garmisch, I stepped into one of the low-budget clothing stores to buy a dry pair of pants and a tshirt. Fastest shopping I’ve ever done, and probably the best 40€ I’ve ever spent on cheap clothes.
That way, I at least didn’t have to sit through the train ride back to Munich in wet clothes.
What a chaotic, yet beautiful, hike.
Here’s how I would plan differently next time:
- Skip the Teufelsgsaß. For the ascent, the Teufelsgsaß path itself is too demanding for what you get out of it. And for the descent, it’s too steep and tricky for my taste. Also, the road from Partnachklamm leading up to the beginning of the actual ascent is rather boring; it’s 2 hours of wide gravel roads with cars driving on large parts of it. If my goal was to visit Schachenhaus and the surrounding spots, I’d take the Kälbersteig and Königsweg on the ascent. Then you can simply walk over to the pavilion and get the same view of the Reintal you’d have when crawling up Teufelsgsaß. For the descent, I’d take the Königsweg and Kälbersteig as well, but swap out the Partnachklamm with with a visit to one of the Alms nearby, like the Kaiserschmarrn Alm and then go back to Garmisch from there.