On Easter Sunday we set off early to catch the first boat across the Königssee to St. Bartholomä and hike from there to the well-known ice chapel at the foot of the Watzmann. The ice chapel, a cave in a mighty snowfield, was, however, threatened by avalanches at the same spot, just as the year before at my shoot with Silvi and Philipp. It no longer exists: the ice chapel collapsed in September 2025, the Berchtesgaden National Park reported, and entering the remaining ice is life-threatening.
In the rain up to the snow line
Even so, the landscape was impressive. It rained heavily on the way up, and at the highest point we reached the snow line. The next day we wanted to hike towards the Obersee, but the path was only reopened a week later. So we went home earlier and on the way back added a hike around the beautiful Eibsee at the foot of the Zugspitze.
Snow on the peaks, fog in the valley – this is how the Watzmann greets us on Easter Sunday.Königssee twice: a wooded ridge in black and white and a rock face above the water.The fog creeps up the steep conifer forest.A rock face with patches of snow above the Königssee, fog drifting along the slope.The wooded ridge fades into the fog – that is all the mountain the day will give.Fog over the spruce slope and over the ridge beside it.Yellow grass and spruce on steep rock – the Königssee lies still below.A rocky peak with a few patches of snow, almost entirely in the clouds.The Königssee in black and white between steep slopes, fog clinging to a summit.A band of fog in front of the wooded rock face, dark spruce in the foreground.On the first boat across the Königssee – and the boat at the jetty becomes a subject itself.St. Bartholomä on the shore: the red onion domes and the white pilgrimage church.Fallen, bare trunks in the green mountain forest – here the forest tidies up on its own.Gravel, a stream and young larches, the wooded mountain in the fog behind.A stone tablet with a Latin inscription on the rock, half hidden behind branches.A small white chapel with orange shutters in the spring forest beside the path.Details of the chapel: two crosses on the orange door and a barred window.A mossy boulder among mossy trunks – everything here is green.Moss everywhere: on the boulder and on the thick roots of the forest floor.A bare rocky ridge with brown grass in the fog on the flank of the Watzmann.A stream's gravel bed below the rocky flank, the last patches of snow above.Jagged rock needles in thick fog on the steep face of the Watzmann.The face disappears into the white, snow lying in the narrow gorge below.A gravel path and young spruce, a snow-streaked peak behind – up to the snow line in the rain.A long tongue of snow runs through the narrow cirque below the face of the Watzmann.Two rock faces with narrow snow gullies, brown grass between them.The snowfield in the valley between steep slopes, in black and white.A rocky ridge with brown grass and small bushes, the fog sitting on top.Two foggy mountainsides with patches of snow and dark forest.Swathes of fog over the dark conifer forest, in black and white.Bare trees and a meadow, the mountain in the fog behind.Back at St. Bartholomä: the church on the lake and a wooden house with green shutters.
