The ''Wetterspitzen'' are three of the rocky peaks on a mountain ridge in the

Wetterstein mountains The Wetterstein mountains (), colloquially called Wetterstein, is a mountain group in the Northern Limestone Alps within the Eastern Alps, crossing the Austria–Germany border. It is a comparatively compact range located between Garmi ...

in the central part of the

Eastern Alps The Eastern Alps are usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley, up to the Splügen Pass at the Main chain of the Alps, Alpine divide, and down the Liro (Como), Liro River to Lake Como in the south. ...

in Germany. They lie two kilometres,

as the crow flies The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points. Etymology The meaning of the expression is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in the Charles Dickens novel ''Oliver Twist'' (1838): ...

, southwest of Germany's highest peak, the

Zugspitze The Zugspitze ( , ; ), at above Normalhöhennull, sea level, is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains and the highest mountain in Germany. It lies south of the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, and the Austria–Germany border ...

, on the border between the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n province of

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

and the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

state of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. The ''Wetterspitzen'' form the southwest perimeter of the Zugspitze ledge (''Zugspitzplatt''); below and to the east is the ski region on the

Schneeferner } The Schneeferner in the Bavarian Alps is Germany's highest and largest glacier.Schneefernerhaus The Schneefernerhaus is a former hotel in the Alps, that is now used as an environmental research station. It lies immediately below the summit of the Zugspitze at a height of 2,650 m and was opened on 20 January 1931. It used to house the top sta ...

. The three peaks are the: * Northern Wetterspitze (''Nördliche Wetterspitze'') - high; * Southern or Middle Wetterspitze (''Südliche (Mittlere) Wetterspitze'') - high; * Eastern Wetterspitze (''Östliche Wetterspitze'') - high.

Base

A possible base for climbing the ''Wetterspitzen'' is the ''SonnAlpin'' restaurant () on the Zugspitze Ledge, the terminal station of the

Bavarian Zugspitze Rack Railway Bavarian is the adjective form of the German state of Bavaria, and refers to people of ancestry from Bavaria. Bavarian may also refer to: * Bavarii, a Germanic tribe * Bavarians, a nation and ethnographic group of Germans * Bavarian, Iran, a villag ...

Easiest routes

From the Zugspitze ledge (''Zugspitzplatt''): * an easy climb, according to the literature, (

UIAA The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, commonly known by its French name Union internationale des associations d'alpinisme (UIAA; ), was founded in August 1932 in Chamonix, France when 20 mountaineering associations met for ...

grade II) in half an hour to the Northern Wetterspitze. * in two hours (UIAA II) to the Middle Wetterspitze, * in half an hour with any difficult sections (UIAA I) to the Eastern Wetterspitze In addition there are various climbing routes up to UIAA grade V, starting from west of

Ehrwald Ehrwald is a municipality in the district of Reutte in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Geography Ehrwald lies at the southern base of the Zugspitze (2950 meters above sea level), Germany's highest mountain, but which is shared with Austria. The tow ...

Sources and maps

* Stefan Beulke: '' AVF Wetterstein,'' Rother Verlag München (1996), {{ISBN, 3-7633-1119-X * Alpenvereinskarte 1:25.000, Blatt 4/2, ''Wetterstein- und Mieminger Gebirge'' Mountains of the Alps Mountains of Bavaria Mountains of Tyrol (federal state) Wetterstein Two-thousanders of Austria Two-thousanders of Germany