Goal: the Alpspitze (altitude 2628 meters) near the ski town of Garmisch, on the same ridge with the highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze.  Route: more or less straight ahead, but a little to the right of the point.
 

looking back to our starting point, the top of the Alpspitzbahn ski lift on the Osterfelderkopf hill
 

Sharon climbing the first steep section, after hiking up on the snow. Two other climbers about the to make the tricky step from snow onto rock. Our route is called the Alpspitze "ferrata", because there are steel cables to attach to protect some sections
 

although most of the climbing was with our feet on the rock, in a few sections there were steel rungs
 

after the first section on rock, Sharon crosses more snow, with two climbers from Quebec ahead
 

climbing on rock, but attached to the steel cable for safety
 

into the mist
 

far below us are other climbers, and the town of Garmisch
 

above us are three climbers -- and far above them two more climbers -- a big space
 

getting close to the summit, our route crosses over to the west side of the peak
 

Sharon making the final interesting moves . . .
 

. . . to the top of the Alpspitze
 

next comes the hard part, getting back down again -- climbers descending the east ridge ahead of us
 

then we traversed across the north face by the old Nordwandsteig route, which we found to include two tunnels for the climbers
 

(actually there was not that much light inside, except when the camera flashed)
 

safely back to our starting point at the Alpspitzbahn lift