May Hoher Fricken Hike

Published on 2006-5-18 by Michael Stanton

Hoher Fricken

May 18, 2006

A morning hike to the summit of Hoher Fricken. I parked just outside of Oberau, and followed a nice path by a golf course. Then it turned up off the valley floor on a steep narrow forest road, and soon because a steep trail. They really know how to make their trails steep around here! I continued up in many switchbacks, crossing the occasional stream gully, and even using hands on a rock step here and there. Eventually I reached a pleasant bowl with bands of snow. Kicking steps up the snowfields slowed me down a bit, and I wondered if I should go for the summit or turn around. Suddenly I was at a saddle with an amazing view of the Wetterstein Range! Then I looked at the relatively narrow ridge leading to the summit. "Oh I need me summat!" I said aloud. It was a slow 15 minutes to get there from the saddle due to snow on the ridge top. But it was so worth it! The view of Farchant, the Zugspitze and other snowy peaks was fantastic (actually, "gigantisch" :-)). It took 2:15 to here, and I felt so good that I decided to go down a different way: via a steep trail to Farchant. Farchant and Oberau looked so close from up there. "I won't mind the flat walk between them," I thought.

Boy was this trail steep, and often snowcovered for the first 300 meters down. I came to puzzling drop offs and small ascents where I paused and scanned the map closely. Sometimes I had to grab onto Latschen and lower myself down steep crumbly slopes. "This is like the Cascades," I mused. Later I came to a road, followed it the direction that looked down then got nervous when it started climbing. So I went back the other way, wasting about 30 minutes following the road to it's end on a logging landing. I did see an enormous, frightening ant bed over there.

From road, I was back to trail after a while, and finally on the flats of Farchant. Boy was I tired! Too tired to run more than a few minutes at a time on the road back to Oberau. Mostly I enjoyed the little forest interpretive center as I sauntered along. There would be a bench with the sign "Wildschule" (wild school), or another bench with a great view stating "Garmischer Apotheke" (Pharmacy for residents of Garmisch). I reached the car at 10:30, so the trip down took just as long as the trip up (2:15).

This trip is a little long for a morning hike, but if you return the same way, you could cram it in. It was about 4000 feet elevation gain/loss. Some pictures to come.

The hike to the summit of Hoher Fricken via the Oberausteig passes through some lovely meadows on the valley floor. The mountain in the background is the Zugspitze.

The Hoher Fricken seen from the basin ("Kessel") just to the north.

This nice ridge leads to the summit of Hoher Fricken.

Here is the town of Farchant from the summit of Hoher Fricken. The larger town of Garmisch-Paternkirchen can be partially seen on the left.