Germany's Zugspitze Ski Lift Demolished as Glacier Disappears Beneath It
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Germany's Highest Ski Lift Is Gone - and the Glacier That Held It Up Isn't Far Behind
A ski lift that has run down the Schneeferner glacier on Germany's Zugspitze for more than 50 years was demolished on Friday after the slope it served melted away beneath it. It is the most visible sign yet that climate change is fundamentally reshaping what is possible in the Alps - and Germany's remaining glaciers may not be long for this world.
Why the lift had to come down
The operator, Bayerische Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn AG, began dismantling the lift after the glacier receded to the point where continued operation simply wasn't viable. High-tension cables anchoring the lift were severed using blasting charges on Friday evening, with the pylons - which were built directly on ice - collapsing once the cables were cut.
Spokeswoman Laura Schaper put it plainly: "The ice is receding, the terrain and the lift have changed drastically. The slope has become significantly steeper, and for that reason it's no longer technically feasible to keep operating the lift."
When the terrain itself is changing year on year, there is a point at which no amount of engineering will keep a lift running. That point has now been reached on the Zugspitze - which at 2,962 metres is Germany's highest peak, sitting along the border with Austria in the Wetterstein massif.
The numbers are hard to ignore
New data on Bavaria's remaining glaciers, released the day before the demolition, found that they shrank by more than a quarter between 2023 and 2025 alone - losing around one million cubic metres of ice in just two years.
Glaciologist Christoph Mayer from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences was direct about what that means: "The glaciers in Bavaria will inevitably melt away, as they can no longer survive in the face of climate change."
Geologist Wilfried Hagg from the Munich University of Applied Sciences, who worked on the study alongside Mayer, told AFP there is "absolutely no" chance of saving any of Germany's remaining glaciers.
What's left - and for how long
There are four glaciers remaining in Bavaria. Two are on the Zugspitze itself - the northern section of the Schneeferner and the Hoellentalferner. The other two sit on the Berchtesgaden massif: the Watzmann glacier at 2,713 metres and Blaueis at 2,607 metres.
According to Hagg, those four are "in very bad shape," with the Berchtesgaden pair "likely to disappear completely very soon - this year or next."
For skiers, the practical implications are straightforward. Glacier skiing in Germany is done. The Zugspitze will continue to operate as a ski resort - it has lifts and terrain that don't depend on glacial ice - but the era of skiing down an actual Bavarian glacier is over.
It's worth keeping in mind as you plan European ski trips that glacier skiing across the Alps more broadly is contracting. Resorts that have historically leaned on high-altitude glacier terrain for early season and late season skiing are increasingly finding that terrain unreliable or simply gone. The Zugspitze is just the most recent - and most visually dramatic - example of that trend playing out.