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In
Germany, one of the most beautiful national parks is located in the Alps, at the southeast extremity of the country, at the border between Germany and Austria, at few kilometers of the city of Salzburg (hometown of Mozart): the
Berchtesgaden National Park.
This national park protects the largest German glacial lake, the
Königssee, with its crystalline waters and a depth of 190m, surrounded by cliffs of nearly 700m and by the Watzmann, highest mountain inside Germany (2713m; the Zügspitze, highest German mountain is shared by both Germany and Austria).
- View on the Königssee and the Watzmann from the Jenner (1870m). The lake is at 600m, the Watzmann summit at 2700m, the cliff on the right side is at least 700m high (twice the Eiffel Tower as reference ! The top of the cliff is at 1400m). The grasslands on the forefront are at 1200m, just before another cliff falling to the lake.
The Berchtesgaden National Park is full of hiking trails, from extremely easy to extremely difficult, and hosts several mountain huts, allowing to explore nearly all the park.
I went for the first time in this park in
2012 for fours days.
At this time, having no real experience of hiking, i stayed limited to day hikes, using extremely basic equipment. I learned quite of lot of this experience, but got frustrated to not be able to go deeper in the park. The only way to visit the deepest parts of the park was to do a multi-day hike.
During
2013, i bought additional equipment (mid-cut boots, 40L backpack, new pant) based on the past experience. I did not had any weather window during the summer 2013. However, in end September 2013, a 48h windows of decent weather was announced. I took this opportunity to do the tour of the Königssee, alone.
In the present report, I will present the tour of the Königssee, one of the most interesting multi-days hikes in this national park, doing 3/4 of the lake tour by the plateaux that surround it, following this road (with the exception of the section between the huts 2 & 3, where I followed the path through the Grünsee):
SourceDay 0The hike starts from the lake (603m), and requires to reach the summit of the
Jenner (1874m).
Even if it is possible to do it by foot, honestly it has no real interest, especially as the summit is accessible by a telecabin (going up to 1800m).
From the summit of the Jenner, the first hut, the
Carl-von-Stahl-Haus, is only at 40 minutes (~2km), and is located 5 meters behind the border, on the Austrian side (another hut, the
Schneibsteinhaus, is located at 250m of the border, in German territory !).
- The Carl-von-Stahl-Haus (1736m). The sign indicates the border Germany - Austria.
To be continued ...