Friederspitz Hiking

Published on 2008-11-30 by Michael Stanton

Friederspitz hike

November 30, 2008

With my snowshoes on my back I headed up dirt roads near the town of Gries, making for the Prince Regenten Steig (path) on Friederspitz. Losing some time down by the river because of confusion over which junction to take, I did eventually reach the trail, which climbed steeply. Smallish amounts of snow were no problem, and there were some old tracks on this mostly south facing slope. Eventually the trail traversed a steep hillside for about half a mile. This bugged me because my map showed the trail going straight up the ridge. I was afraid I was following a hunters path back into a valley. A beautiful looking valley, but I wanted a summit! I retraced my steps, finally concluding the traverse was necessary. Later, in a proper guidebook I saw the traverse is correct.

Anyway, with improving views of the Zugspitze, and "deep looks" down the valley, I reached a few switchbacks and started climbing up. I thought I was reaching the ridgecrest when the forest opened up a bit, putting on my snowshoes for powdery snow. It was too soon! I took them off again, finding it more efficient to keep using an old boot track until it gave up and went home. Now in snowshoes, I followed an obvious line to the ridge, then a long walk on a grassy plateau. I descended slightly, then snowshoed up the long final haul to the summit of Friederspitz in biting wind. Whew! It took 3 hours and 15 minutes to climb 1200 meters! 40 minutes screwing around on the flats, then another 15 wasted on the traverse, I guess that is the way it goes. The views were amazing. I saw Scheinbergspitze and Kramerspitze, other Ammergau hiking peaks I'd been on previously. The summit of Frieder (as opposed to Friederspitz!) looked too far away for me to visit and get back sometime around the noon hour. I'd have to hurry as it was!

Going down was more complex than I expected. I love loop hikes, and planned to go down "the easy way," which I was sure would be tracked...this being Europe and all. But no sign! Orienting the map, I picked a valley to descend, occasionally fighting patches of small trees that would spring up from under the snow. But I was on the right track, reaching the Friederalmhütte right where I expected it. A long rightward traverse, then I had to gamble and pick a place to descend. How about...here. Down steep treed slopes, sometimes glissading. I chose well, eventually meeting the tracks of a hiker who got discouraged with the deep snow. Not too worried now, I kept that trail somewhere in sight and just bombed down through the trees. This would be great tree skiing, I think.

A long walk out on snowy dirt roads followed. I started jogging awkwardly, hoping to hurry home. I got home at 1:30 pm, a pretty long "Dawn Patrol" considering I left at 5:45 am!

Apologies for the length of this little report, I'm writing it the same day, that is why!