Bavarian Cable Cars – Mitchell News

The Bavarian Alps are awesome and reasonably high. Not everyone wants to spend hours climbing to the top, more so in ski season. We saw many cable cars in our travels around Bavaria.

Our first cable car experience was in Maransen / Maranza. Whilst still part of Italy, most people speak German, hence everything is bilingual. So it is Maransen in German and Maranza in Italian. We were fortunate that the local cable car up the Gitschberg opened the day we arrived. We had a great time going up this long cable car ride and then getting to do a bit of hiking which included the obligatory summit (Monte Cuzzo Peak at 2512m). You can read more about this day here – Florence / Firenze to Maransen / Maranza – Mitchell News

In Oberammergau, they have an old cable car that goes up the Laber Mountain. It might not be the highest mountain but it offered tremendous views. With a 360 degree view we could see out to Munich. We also got to see out Garmisch-Partenkirchen where they would shortly be holding a G7 Summit. This is the world’s last large-cabin bicable gondola. It opened on 21 Feb 1957 and goes up the mountain from 900m to an elevation of 1684m. It is a 2km long line. Here is a video taken from the summit – Laber Mountain view

After our visit to Oberammergau, we stayed at Bad Bayersoien for a few nights. The quality of the renovation done in the AirBnb we stayed at, was one of the best we have encountered in the more than 200 places we have stayed in the last 6 years. However we are talking cable cars – We went to nearby Bad Kohlgrub to take the Hörnle cable car. This is also about a 2km cable car ride. This cable car was opened in 1954 and goes up the mountain from 900m to an elevation of 1400m.

The design was also very interesting, with a chair that swings back when you exit. Unfortunately, it was a very windy and misty day when we went up. We summited one of the local mountains – but was a case of ‘gorillas in the mist’. Here is a short video of part of the climb – Hörnle

We also stayed in Bad Reichenhall which has Germany’s oldest operating cable car. Whilst we did not go up on it, electing to climb the hill instead (you can read more here – a SHORT walk in Bad Reichenhall! – Mitchell News). It would be remise though not to mention a little bit about this cable car up the Predigstuh. This cable car opened on 1 July 1928. This makes it the oldest large cable car in the world that has been preserved in its original form and it operates all year round. It is known as the “Grande Dame of the Alps”. It is about a 2.5km ride from 464m up to 1614m. This was quite an achievement in its day.