Garmisch Classic Germany March 23-24 2019

I’m here in Europe for 2.5 weeks total.  After meeting in Switzerland and skiing in Wengen I spent a week near Stuttgart Germany.  I had planned take the train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen but my company decided it would be better to drive so they arranged for a rental car.  I made it there by around 6 pm and checked into Rindl’s Partenkircher Hof.  It’s an old 4 star hotel about 200m from the train station.  The room was big and comfortable and the half board food fantastic.  

View from my hotel room



On Saturday I took the bus from the Train station to the Hausberg Bahn a Gondi similar to WFs to start my day.  The lifts are fast and modern except for one key old tram and a few t bars which are in low traffic sections.  After freeze thaws the morning surface was mightily firm and slick but thankfully they were having a demo day so I exchanged my 90Eights for Volkl Deacon 76 and made some GS turns.  The scenery is amazing here so after giving up the demos I pulled a James and fortified myself for some  Firn / Corn skiing once things thawed a bit
Insert strudel porn shot below





Garmisch Classic skis like a 4000 Vert eastern ski area in many respects.  Most of it is below tree line and the base is around 700m.  The Alpsptiz section is above treeline and has the main off piste skiing.  Some aspects never thawed out but I managed to ski some nice corn and some drier left over crud in the shady sections.  It has a double black pitch and skied a bit like our WF slides and about the same length.  





Once the corn was over cooked I decided I needed a sausage and beer.  I skied corn / slush groomers until 3:30 then had a beer at the bottom.



There is a serious alpinist thing going on here.  Lots of guys skiing up thru the ski area and into the high alpine zone above it.  This line in particular was seriously bad ass.



With a couple more lifts Garmisch could compete with Swiss and French areas for off piste but the majority of Germans don’t ski off piste so it doesn’t hapoen.

I had a nice stroll on Ludwig Strass in Parkenkirchen before dinner which was a beautiful old street.  



 A great 5 course meal though i skipped the soup course of bavarian lamb and a great dessert crepe followed in the hotel.  Let me know if I’ve bought in too much to James dessert porn thing.



I chatted with a fellow guest and got a game plan based on his report that up high on the Zugspitz it was not corning up at all and was crusty so I skipped the hour each way train ride and decided to start the day more in the middle of the ski area and skip the Hausberg altogether to focus my time on the Alpspitz zone.  I skied groomers and some lower pistes that were slushy and then a kucken break waiting for the corn to ripen.  



A final and best dessert photo as it reminded my of my Bavarian grandmamas plum cakes



It finally did around 11 and i did a bunch of sweet corn laps on nice black and double black shots.  My legs were toast by 1 so I headed down and had a radler (weiss beer mixed with a lemon soda) and a brat and then drove back to Stuttgart.  On the way i saw a nice looking ski area called Lermoos in Austria that I kind of wish I had skied with the Top Card ticket which is more expensive but allows skiing in Germany and Austria.  Maybe James can comment on this area.

One more week of work and then home - its been a long trip but I got some nice skiing in and met a lot of really nice people.

another great report..
I'm sure your cholesterol and sugar are spiking..

I take exception with Z's characterization of my Euro TRs -- as if I'm in the habit of posting one skiing pic and 15 dessert pix instead of the other way around!

Great photos and descriptions, fantastic that you're able to combine this on a work visit.

For my recent trip, I was planning to ski for the first time in Germany: Oberstdorf, 35 miles to the west of Garmisch as the crow flies, but made a last-minute change to Graubünden/St. Moritz.

I love the food porn. I imagine the food is a huge part of the European ski experience.

What could the vert be with an alpine tram Z? It looks like there’s ample opportunity for some ski-basing there too.

Fabulous report and fantastic pics please keep them coming.  Coach Z and JD you have skied in both the Rockies and now Europe. Can you guys take a little bit about the differences and which you prefer and why.  I spent a couple of days in Chamonix last summer and fell in love with the place. I am dying to go ski there.  In the meantime I am going out west for the last few years (Big White, Lake Louise, Sunshine Village) but really want to go Europe really soon.  

Claude

What I have taken from James posts is to make sure to take time to have the cake and lunch.  It seemed like I was making fun of James but it was more imatation as flattery.  James trs are the best.  I didn’t mean to offend James.

To Big75’s question.  The difference between a Rockies and a Euro vacation is making sure to have the experiences.  In the US I tend to ski from opening bell to like 2 stopping only for water energy bar and pee breaks then have lunch in town becuase ski area food is meh in the US.  In Europe I go for the whole day stop and smell the roses experience.  In the US just the tourists may do that but here every Euro does it too.  The food on Mt is great and cheap.  I spent about $25 a day for my morning snack, lunch with a beer and a beer afterward.  

The actual skiing in Europe can be awesome like my Saturday in Wengen or more ok Eastern as the mornings waiting for the corn to thaw in Garmisch.  It’s a much more variable skiing experience here.  If it snows and you are at an above treeline resort you may not even be able to ski because the visibility will be so bad.  

If you haven’t done it you really need to.  The big places and the small all are great.  

raisingarizona wrote

I love the food porn. I imagine the food is a huge part of the European ski experience.

What could the vert be with an alpine tram Z? It looks like there’s ample opportunity for some ski-basing there too.

That tram was about 2000 Vert to return to it or you could add another 1000 by going lower below it to a t bar

Love it Z

I liked it,  Much better than this CC I am on

Enjoyed these reports very much Z!

Z wrote

What I have taken from James posts is to make sure to take time to have the cake and lunch.  It seemed like I was making fun of James but it was more imatation as flattery.  James trs are the best.  I didn’t mean to offend James.

I was busting your chops, not serious. What's especially odd is that an insulin-dependent diabetic (me, not Z) is posting pix of decadent desserts that he's eating.

BigK75 wrote

 Coach Z and JD you have skied in both the Rockies and now Europe. Can you guys take a little bit about the differences and which you prefer and why.

Will reply later today.

I don’t have the level of experience James does (nobody does!), or Z, but I can give you my take based on a short visit to Zermatt.  

The scenery, the alpine environment, the culture.....those were more memorable for me than the actual skiing.  Of course we didn’t have much time, and I couldn’t really delve into the off piste.  However, the idea of skiing groomed pistes in a vast expanse of snow covered landscape was....odd?  I guess if the vast whiteness around the above tree line pistes was dotted with trees the groomed runs might have seemed just like what we have in the US?  In any event, notwithstanding the incredible scenery and mind blowing vertical, I’d think one could easily get bored skiing the groomed pistes in Europe.  Then there is the weather.  Hit it wrong and look out.  I’ve had plenty of bad vis days in the US (east and west), but above treeline in the Alps a bad day is vertigo inducing even for the heartiest of skiers.  So, the skiing itself is fascinating in some ways, but strange and not so great in others.  Hit it right and have time to explore it is probably sublime, but that may not happen often.

Then there is the cultural element, right from boarding a train in Zurich and training all the way to Zermatt (a no car village) with the scenery, and the Alpine Villages, and the people, and the food, and the food, and the fo....oh, I said that, sorry....to taking a train as your lift to a glacier, to so many other things.  Stopping at a quaint Swiss hotel mid mountain above tree line for an incredible lunch for much less than a crappier lunch here would cost.  The experience of all of that was more impactful than the skiing itself, which is obviously incredible, so that’s saying a lot.  That is why James’ reports are so great, why Z is right, why everyone should experience European skiing at least once.

Skiing in Europe is just refined.  Sit on a deck, have a kuchen, radler, enjoy the scenery, etc.

As for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area - definitely recommend heading over to Lermoos and Ehrwald for a day.  Ski much better that Garmisch Classic.  Less crowded, chill vibe, good huts to chill.  Living in the Garmisch area for two years had only a couple good days at Classic while many good days at Erhwald and Lermoos.  Good tree skiing in places there too.  

AmmergauerTele wrote

Skiing in Europe is just refined.  Sit on a deck, have a kuchen, radler, enjoy the scenery, etc.

As for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area - definitely recommend heading over to Lermoos and Ehrwald for a day.  Ski much better that Garmisch Classic.  Less crowded, chill vibe, good huts to chill.  Living in the Garmisch area for two years had only a couple good days at Classic while many good days at Erhwald and Lermoos.  Good tree skiing in places there too.

Thanks for the info.  I should have tried Lermoos.  

Are you an ex pat American?  If I may ask how did that come about and how easy / Hard is it to pull off?  Can you work in Eu or are you retired?  What about health care? How expensive is housing?

How did you pick Garmisch-Partenkirchen as your new home?

I was in the Navy and working for NATO at the time at NATO School Oberammergau about 20 minutes from Garmisch.  If you get the chance spend an afternoon in Oberammergau.  They have a great alpine slide at the Kolben Ski Area that's open in the summer and fall, awesome pool - Wellenberg, and Passion Play in 2020.  If you get the opportunity next time if you can go a little further into Austria I recommend.  Garmisch reminded me mostly on New England skiing - would often get icy and scraped off.  Trails crowded as easy to get to from Munich.  So many ski areas in Tyrol Austria to choose from.  Lermoos and Erhwald right down the street then the further you go the better - St. Anton (including Lech/Zurs/Warth), Ischgl, Serfaus/Fiis, Solden, Obergurgl/Hochgurgl, and many more will blow your mind....Terrain everywhere, detachable 4/6/8 seaters with bubbles, heated seats, crazy 24 person gondola type lifts.  The infrastructure is crazy.  And there are many more ski areas...checkout the Tyrol Snow Card!

Z: someone recently posted an extensive report from early February in case you'd like to see more pix. Put the link through Google Translate for his details.

I just did my first Alp trip this winter, one week at Val d'Sière/Tignes and second week at LaPlagne/Les Arcs, and it was a real eye opener and very very impressive, so much so that I didnt buy either an Ikon or Epic pass this Spring and plan on going back next year. There are downsides, like length of travel compared to Denver or SLC, but that's easily sucked up. The biggest problem I found, one that I anticipated, was the "bad weather" skiing. If you're at a place like Val dSière/Tignes, which, although massive, spectacular places that put any western hill to shame in size, but essentially have no trees, a not sunny day, let alone storms of any kind, are impossible to ski in. And I like to ski in snowstorms. LaPlagne had a lot more in the way of tree skiing, although we didnt need it because we lucked out with a week of bluebird. Val/Tignes was tough, because the weather sucked most of the week. Hardly saw the place, ate and drank too much. So, keep that in mind if you're going over. The treeline over there is much lower.

Benny Profane wrote

The treeline over there is much lower.

Why is that?

I don't know. The trees tend to vanish around 6500-7000 feet, whereas ABasin in Colorado has good tree skiing at 11,000 feet.

De Googlez brought me to TGR:

"Treeline roughly approximates the 10C July isotherm. That is, the spot where the average July temperature is 10C. So warm summer temps = high treeline."