Germany

                      Spotlight On Garmisch-Partenkirchen

                                                          (Originally written for OnTheSnow.com)
                                                                             by Ted Heck

Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps is the premier ski resort in Germany. Take it from 80 million citizens and many millions of former American GIs who served in the country since the end of World War II.

I'm one of them and, like everybody who remembers his first lover, I have vivid recall of my first day on skis. A combat veteran, I was still in Germany in June, 1946, serving in the occupation. After my army softball team was eliminated from a tournament in nearby Oberammergau, someone suggested we drive over to Garmisch and go skiing atop the Zugspitze, the country's highest mountain.

We rented wooden skis that were higher than I could reach, with bear trap bindings and soft boots that no self-respecting lumberjack would wear. I think we paid a dollar. We went out into the bowl where we flopped around like baby seals on an ice floe. I was hooked.

Three years later I was back as a civilian, with a wife and working as an athletic consultant with the army in Munich. Skiing became a frequent holiday activity, with lessons in Switzerland and Austria. But Garmisch was only an hour and a half down the road and we devoted many weekends to winter sport. We stayed in hotels operated by the Armed Forces Recreation Center, along with those millions of other military and civilian support personnel. That center is still going strong, with many families getting their first taste of skiing.

I have been back many times since. The mountains haven't changed in six decades, but the facilities have mushroomed. Skiers can still take the long, dark ride on a cogwheel train that burrows through the Zugspitze. However, they also can be whisked up by a cable car with the picturesque Eibsee lake in sight.

The panorama from the top station restaurant is grand. You can see far to the west in Germany, far across snowy peaks to the south into Austria. In the bowl below are 14 miles of groomed slopes, eight draglifts, one chair and three cable cars. And lots of banks of deep snow to challenge aggressive skiers.

On my most recent visit I was skiing with a group that included Marlen Kruse, a young German woman who works for Ski-Europe in Houston, Texas. She was blowing through the deep when she hit a rock formation head on, soared into the air, landed on her back and slid for 50 yards. She wasn't hurt and laughed at our awarding her a 5.9 score for her one-and-a-half somersault. The spectacular dive sent us a signal that the open bowl was not as tame as it looked.

The Zugspitze is just one of five ski areas in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Other mountains include Eckbauer, Hausberg, Kreuzeck, and Alpspitz/Osterfelder. Eckbauer has a main run that passes the ski jumps and ends at the Olympic stadium. (Germany hosted both summer and winter games in 1936.) A Happy Ski Card lets skiers use all the lifts in the Garmisch-Paretenkirchen area, plus well over 100 lifts in neighboring Austria.

The resort's most famous run starts at the Kreuzjoch, a spot between the Hausberg and Alpsitz mountains. It is the Kandahar, a World Cup downhill course that is more than two miles long and drops 3,100 feet. Pitch and peril---it has more curves than a chorus line.

As for the town---it is actually two communities that grew together into one municpality of 28,000 inhabitants. Newer Garmisch goes back to the Middle Ages, while Partenkirchen dates back to Roman times. Both areas have comfortable hotels in a wide range of amenities and prices for their 10,000 guest beds. Some are elaborately equipped with wellness facilities that attest to Garmisch-Partenkirchen's reputation as a spa town.

A multitude of shops makes aprés-ski strolling an exercise in cognitive dissonance. Why did I buy this woodcarving instead of a Hummel figurine? Restaurants abound, including some that offer folk evenings. Of course, there is a McDonald's---in a building that used to be an army-run hotel. I liked it better then.

After dark many skiers chance a visit to the casino. On bad weather days they take advantage of numerous cultural activities or they go sightseeing. Star attractions include the theater in Oberammergau where the Passion Play is staged, the Benedictine Abbey in Ettal, and nearby Linderhof castle, one of several testaments to the ego of fairy tale King Ludwig II .

A full-day excursion to his Neuschwanstein castle near Füssen lets you see an edifice that may have been the model for the towers of Disneyworld.

Sixty three years after my first visit Garmisch-Partenkirchen still makes deposits in my memory bank.