Germany as a ski destination
German skiing is short-vertical and close to home. The largest ski area in the country, Steinplatte Winklmoosalm above Reit im Winkl, has 42 km of piste, and only the Zugspitzplatt glacier reaches above 2,100 m. The industry counts 208 aerial cableways and funiculars plus four cogwheel railways, carrying more than 11 million guests a year. Thirty-two of those installations run no winter operation at all: German lift companies open 160 to 180 days in summer against 100 to 140 in winter, which makes them year-round businesses in a way their Alpine neighbours are not.12
- Aerial cableways and funiculars
- 208
- Cogwheel railways
- 4
- Guests carried a year
- 11 million
- Lift companies in the industry association
- 124
- Largest ski area
- 42 km of piste
What it is known for
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Snowmaking carries the season
At 600 to 1,500 m, most German pistes cannot count on natural cover. The industry association credits technical snowmaking with holding piste quality through the increasingly variable 2025/26 winter, and the resorts that opened in late November did so on cold nights rather than on snowfall.34
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Summer matters more than winter
German cableways run 160 to 180 operating days in summer and 100 to 140 in winter, and 32 of the 208 installations have no winter-sport operation at all. About a quarter of the winter guests are not skiing either.1
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One high-alpine area, and a long drop to the next
The Zugspitzplatt glacier runs from about 2,650 m and skis into May. Below it the ceiling falls away quickly: Nebelhorn tops out at 2,224 m, Garmisch-Classic at 2,050 m, and the largest area outside the Alps, Feldberg in the Black Forest, at 1,450 m.23
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Ski areas inside commuting range
The Mittelgebirge resorts exist because of who can reach them on a Saturday rather than because of their terrain. Winterberg in the Sauerland is the biggest ski area in North Rhine-Westphalia and the largest anywhere in the German uplands, on a hill whose base and summit are barely 200 m apart, within a couple of hours of the Ruhr.2
Resort guides
30 of the 1,311 ski areas mapped in the SkiAllDay app are in Germany, together 556 km of downhill terrain and 407 lifts. A cross-border area counts in every country it touches. The guides below are the ones written up so far.
| Resort | Pistes | Vertical | Lifts | Piste / lift km | Lift min / ski hr | North-facing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balderschwang Bavaria (Oberallgäu, Hörnerdörfer) | 41 km | 500 m | 12 | 1.58 | 76 | 51% |
| Brauneck Bavaria (Upper Bavaria, Tölzer Land) | 30.7 km | 1,032 m | 15 | 1.04 | 97 | 28% |
| Feldberg Baden-Württemberg (Black Forest / Hochschwarzwald) | 33 km | 500 m | 14 | 1.57 | 96 | 43% |
| Fellhorn/Kanzelwand Bavaria (Oberallgäu) and Vorarlberg | 36 km | 1,131 m | 13 | 1.09 | 103 | 38% |
| Garmisch-Classic Bavaria | 40 km | 1,310 m | 18 | 1.21 | 102 | 76% |
| Oberjoch Bavaria (Oberallgäu) | 32 km | 429 m | 5 | 3.01 | 34 | 84% |
| Sudelfeld Bavaria (Upper Bavaria, Tegernsee-Schliersee) | 31 km | 713 m | 13 | 1.53 | 82 | 63% |
| Winklmoosalm-Steinplatte Bavaria (Chiemgau) and Tyrol | 42 km | 1,120 m | 14 | 0.78 | 115 | 73% |
| Winterberg North Rhine-Westphalia (Sauerland, Rothaargebirge) | 27.5 km | 211 m | 25 | 1.23 | 127 | 50% |
| Zugspitze Bavaria (Zugspitz Region) | 20 km | 650 m | 8 | 0.30 | 239 | 35% |
Piste, vertical and lift counts are the operators' own figures. The last three columns are measured from each resort's lift and piste network — see any resort page for how. Piste per lift km describes how sparse a lift network is, not how good it is: sort on it to find long runs off few lifts, or on lift minutes per ski hour to find quick laps.
Elsewhere
References
- 1. ^ a b Daten & Fakten
- 2. ^ a b c Germany: biggest ski resorts
- 3. ^ a b Wintersaison 2025/2026
- 4. ^ Beschneiung