I have wanted to traverse the Watzmann since first visiting the Berchesgaten a few years ago on a landscape photography trip, where I took the photo below. On our second summer holiday this year we had decided to stay around Munich and with a perfect weather forecast, and spaces in the Watzmannhaus we decided to head over to Berchtesgaden to do the classic route crossing the Watzmann.

The route itself was absolutely wonderful, and it was also nice to stay at the hut given it was in such a fine position looking out over Berchtesgaden and the surrounding peaks. The route certainly had all the aspects required to make it a wonderful experience, great views, plenty of exposure and fun scrambling and it was great to look down to the impressive Königssee. The descent from the ridge to the Wimbachgrieshütte was pretty unpleasant and very long, but was worth it given how good the ridge itself was!

Sunrise over the Watzmann, Bavaria

We debated if we should do the route in one day or two, in the end we decided to stay in the hut and do the route in two days, as the guidebook time was 12 hours for the entire route, and we felt that this would make the day more stressful as we would be worrying about time the entire day. In the end this was definitely the correct decision, as the descent was long and took us much longer than the predicted book time so it would have been a very long single day!

Walk in to the Watzmannhaus

The walk into the Watzmannhaus was very straightforward, however we were certainly concerned that we were going to get wet as the clouds were looking very ominous and the air was extremely hot and humid. We made good time up to the hut, with our walk taking just over 2 hours, with a guidebook time of 3 hours and a sign time of 4 hours, this did however result in us getting very hot and sweaty!

Walking into the Watzmannhaus in front of the Kleiner Watzmann

After arriving at the hut the weather started to improve and it turned out into a wonderful evening, with outstanding views from the hut. Unfortunately sunset itself was a bit of a non event due to cloud on the horizon, however following the sunset the sky lit up beautifully.

Wonderful panorama over the Bärenkareck, Karkopf, Berchtesgadener Hochthron, Hoher Göll, Schniebstein and Kahlersberg
Evening light on the Hoher Göll
Sunset over the Berchtesgadener Hochthron

After an enjoyable evening eating good food, enjoying some beer and chatting to others at the hut we headed up to bed, which resulted in a surprisingly good nights sleep given that we were staying in the “Lager” as it was split into two small sections and had plenty of windows.

Ascent to Hocheck

The next morning we decided to skip breakfast in the hut, so that we could get out before the crowds so that the ridge crossing would be more enjoyable. The walk up was straightforward with some small sections of scrambling, but even starting at 7am it was very hot in the sun! The views gradually improved as we ascended, and the view from the summit of Hocheck was wonderful.

Becky on the ascent to Hocheck in the morning
Almost at the Hocheck summit
Hocheck summit selfie
Wonderful morning view into Austria
Looking over the Gernhorn and Wagendrischelhorn towards the Großvenediger

The Traverse

After quickly gearing up, we headed off on the traverse, which was wonderful. It was never difficult, but there was plenty of scrambling, loads of exposure, and brilliant views in every direction (including down to Königssee). We didn’t use our Klettersteig equipment very much, as it was mostly very easy, but it was certainly good to have it on some of the more exposed sections and a helmet was certainly a good idea given that there is some loose rock, and it is a very popular route.

Becky on one of the slabs on the traverse
Wonderful positions on the traverse
Looking over the Watzmann Südspitze towards the Großglockner and the Großvenediger
Watzmann Mittlespitze summit selfie
Panorama from the Watzmann Mittelspitze
Becky on an exposed descent
Wonderful positions with wonderful views
Watzmann Südspitze
Us on the Watzmann Südspitze
Wonderful views down to the Königsee and Obersee
View from the Watzmann Südspitze

The Descent

We knew that the route had a lot of descent, over 2200m, but what we hadn’t quite prepared for was how unpleasant the descent was going to be. We initially focussed on the walk out to the Wimbachgrieshütte, which involved 1300m of descent over a very short distance. At least the views were nice for some of the descent…

Becky on the long descent

Eventually we made it down to the valley bed, both having run out of water! From here there was thankfully only a short easy walk to the Wimbachgrieshütte. It wasn’t hard to imagine the valley being filled with a glacier!

It wasn’t hard to imagine this valley filled with a glacier

The walk out

After enjoying a late lunch and many drinks at the Wimbachgries Hütte, we then had the remaining 800m and 8km to do back to the car. The path was really good for this section, so we made excellent time and were soon back at the car having had a very satisfying day.

Total distance: 23.32 km
Max elevation: 2693 m
Min elevation: 628 m
Total climbing: 2250 m
Total descent: -2167 m