The Zugspitze cable car - it's the tops!

50 million euros were invested. No other cable car in the world traverses a longer unsupported span: more than 3200 meters from the support tower to the summit station. It has the world's tallest aerial tramway steel support, 127 meters in height. The cabins travel 4.5 kilometers, covering a difference in elevation of almost 2000 meters in one section. Those are technological world records.

Adorned with a white outline of the Wetterstein Massif, the new cabins offer more comfort and a better view. They have room for 120 passengers. The new cable car can transport up to 600 people an hour to the summit. When the glass-walled cabins whisk passengers at high speed over the single support tower, an adrenaline rush is guaranteed on the ten-minute trip.

Engineers and technicians worked on the new cable car for three years. Now the cranes have been dismantled. The three-story summit station glistens from afar. It's fully glazed, including the station platforms, technical buildings and panorama restaurant. Even getting into or out of the cabin is a thrill: the new building hangs 30 meters above a precipice.

The Austrian side already had a cable car to the Zugspitzkamm ridge, 2805 meters above sea level, in 1926. In 1963, the Bavarians went one better: in the following years, the Eibsee cable car took more than 21 million passengers up to 2960 meters. The last cabin traveled to the valley in spring 2017. Adding up all the kilometers, the old cabins circled the world more than 76 times.

The old cable car was named after Eibsee lake. This emerald-green mountain lake lies near the valley station, 1000 meters above sea level. Its name derives from the "Eiben", or yew trees, that once lined its shores in even greater numbers than now. Hiking trails lead around the lake, with its eight islands in crystal-clear water. You can also explore the area on a mountain bike.

The golden cross at the summit was damaged by a crane in May 2017 during construction work. The crane's chain tore off several of the cross's golden rays. Some of them fell deep down but could be salvaged. On December 6, 2017, in a spectacular operation, the Zugspitze's 4.88-meter-tall landmark was put back in its place.

This view attracts more than half a million visitors a year. In fine weather you can see more than 400 peaks. Mountain enthusiasts know their names, but you can simply look them up on the Zugspitze app on PeakFinder AR. Still, many tourists are perfectly contented just enjoying the sun and magnificent view over Germany, Austria, and the Swiss Alps as far as the Dolomites in Italy.

The Zugspitze region is a veritable winter paradise and an ideal arena for winter sports, and it still has a lot of natural snow. The season for skiing and tobogganing on the glacier often lasts well into May. However, in recent years snow has rarely fallen as early as this winter. The Alps are already suffering from the early effects of climate change.

The Zugspitze cog railway first turned Germany's highest peak into a tourist paradise. It has been taking passengers from Garmisch-Partenkirchen up to the glacier since 1930. The final meters to the Zugspitze plateau are now bridged by a short aerial cable car. The trip on the historical cogwheel train takes about 75 minutes. In the summer, many hikers use this way to get to the summit.

Most tourists visit the Zugspitze in the summer, and the cable car operators rely on them. The slogan "a mountain experience for everyone," aims to attract more passengers with disabilities to the summit. The barrier-free cable car is expected to carry up to 600,000 passengers a year and run for at least 50 to 60 years. Whether there will still be snow-covered Alpine peaks remains to be seen.