Skiing in Germania

There are over 500 ski centres in the country, at least there are if you count all the one-lift towns set up to serve Europe’s largest skiing population, 12 million strong.

The country’s major resorts are dotted at regular intervals along its southern border as which rises from the Black Forest in the West to the Bavarian Alps in the East, bordering Switzerland then Austria. Most are easily reached from Munich and indeed it’s the large population centres here and Stuttgart, as well as further north, who have fuelled German ski area development since the world’s first ski lift was built here a century ago.

Like Austria, most German ski areas are at a lower altitude range than those of France or Switzerland, so most have wisely invested in extensive snowmaking. Garmisch - Partenkirchen is Germany's undisputed 'Winter Sports Capital.’ Famous for it's annual New Year Ski jumping competition, televised all over the world, and as a former site of the Winter Olympics; Garmisch today is a large, cosmopolitan town with plenty to see and do both on and off the slopes.

The resort’s skiing is spread across a dozen separate areas, some over the border in Austria but all available on the 'Happy Ski Card' pass. Together they represent over 280km (175 miles) of trails split in to moderately sized areas. The skiing on the Zugspitze is the highest in Germany with trails as high as 2830 metres (9,285 feet). The new Zugspitzbahn goes higher still, up an incredible face of sheer rock from 1000 to 2950 metres but it's not possible to ski the upper section.

But don’t be fooled in to thinking German skiing begins and ends with Garmisch. To the West there are major resorts at Oberstdorf in the Allgauer Alps, Balderschwang and Oberammergau; to the east Reit im Winkl, Oberaudorf and Berchtesgaden. Oberstdorf has two ski mountains, Fellhorn and Nebelhorn, and offers a 1400m continual vertical, the longest in the country. There are 45km of piste, but nearly 30 lifts to take you back up, include several high speed chairs – the kind of queue busting ratio common in North America but rare in the Alps. Experts should try the mile long Super-Buckel-piste with 60 percent pitches. Oberstdorf was host to the Nordic Ski World Championships in 2005 and is also a participant in a cross-border area pass including Austria’s Kleinwalsertal area, giving 125km of runs.

For the best bargains consider one of the smaller ski areas away from the Alps and dotted all over the country. Winterberg, an hour’s drive from Cologne for example, is comparatively low at 640m and with a small vertical of only 190m. But for 20 Euros you have access to around 20 lifts, most of which have snow making and are floodlit for night skiing. As an added bonus, there’s a big après ski scene (check out the legendary mountain hut on Ettelsberg) so it’s no surprise that crowds of up to 50,000 can descend at the weekend – the numbers bolstered by masses arriving from Holland.