Garmisch-Partenkirchen Ski Beginners
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is known for its steep World Cup runs. However, beginner skiers will not be easily bored. Both the Classic and Zugspitze areas offer novice pistes, but the Zugspitze ski area is more suited to strong novices.There are 18kms of runs suitable for beginners – 3km at Eckbauer, 10 km at Hausberg/Alpspitze, and 2km on the glacier. The Hausberg area (1,340 metres (4,396 ft.) on the Classic area has the highest concentration of novices pistes, but strong beginners will find that skiing on the glacier to be well within reach.
The Hausberg area the novice pistes are served by a quad chair and a handful of surface lifts. The runs are not particularly remarkable and unless beginners want to stray onto a red run, theyll be stuck in the Hausberg area. The other blue pistes higher up the area are all served by lifts whose base stations require skiing a red run to reach. Additionally, there is no summit to base blue run so beginners will need to download on the Hausbergbahn. Some novices feel a bit hemmed in by this configuration.
Up in the Zugspitze area, many of the red runs are on the easier end of the spectrum. In fact, we found it difficult to distinguish between the red and blue pistes on the glacier. Skiing on the glacier is something of a novelty and most beginners will enjoy the experience of riding through the mountain on the Zugspitzebahn cog-railway (just follow the signs for the “Zahnradbahn”).