Status: 29.11.2023, 22:17 p.m.
By: Cornelia Schramm
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In the heart of the Zugspitze: Michael Krautblatter controls the temperature of the permafrost in the Kammstollen. Once a month, he electrifies the electrodes in the walls for eight hours. © Cornelia Schramm
Michael Krautblatter measures the fever of the Zugspitze. 140 electrodes show the geologist how fast the permafrost is melting 60 meters below the summit. A visit to Germany's highest mountain, where researchers use high-tech technology to try to prevent rockfalls and mudslides.
Grainau – Long icicles hang from the ceiling. Crystals sparkle on the rock faces. Michael Krautblatter can't stand upright. The 46-year-old walks bent over through the tunnel. Only a headlamp illuminates the way over the mirror-smooth ground – 60 meters below the summit of Germany's highest mountain.
As a geologist and geographer, Krautblatter teaches at the Technical University of Munich. Every four weeks, the professor travels to the Schneefernerhaus environmental research station below the Zugspitze summit. On the seventh floor, the ridge tunnel leads 800 metres deep into the mountain – where his project is waiting.
In 2007, Krautblatter sunk electrodes into the walls – today 140 of them measure the temperature of the thawing permafrost inside the mountain. "Once a month, we measure for eight hours," he says. "It's not possible all the time. Any lightning strike would destroy the electrodes through which surges of electricity flow."
Schneefernerhaus: Researchers electrify Zugspitze
The results can be used to create models: A tomography scan shows the areas that are still frozen – and those that are no longer – compared with those from previous years. The permafrost has been melting since the mid-1980s. "In ten to 15 years, everything will be gone at this altitude," says Krautblatter. In 40 to 50 years, the permafrost of the Zugspitze will have completely disappeared. Then the invisible, inner cement is missing. The eternal ice holds the different types of rock in the mountain together.
The tunnel is 800 metres long and runs under the ridge below the Zugspitze summit. © Picture Alliance
The history of the Schneefernerhaus: From a glamorous hotel to a high-tech research station
On the south side of the Zugspitze summit, grey rock faces drop almost vertically into a steep scree field. This is exactly where the Schneefernerhaus Environmental Research Station (UFS) is located at an altitude of 2650 metres. It was opened in 1999 and has been the highest environmental research station in Germany ever since. However, the history of the building complex goes back much further.
In 1931 a fashionable hotel was opened here. At that time, the hotel was the terminus of the newly built rack railway. When the hotel ceased operations in the 1990s, the Free State converted it into a research station. To this day, it is still supplied with material via the tracks. However, passengers are no longer transported.
In order to connect the Austrian mountain station with the German side, the Kammstollen was built in 1937. At that time, hotel guests and skiers were able to walk through the tunnel, but had to endure passport control directly on the border.
Today, only researchers walk through the tunnel. Various institutions continuously carry out measurements in the Schneefernerhaus, including the German Aerospace Center, the German Weather Service and the Federal Environment Agency, as well as TUM, LMU and the Max Planck Society. It is not only a centre for high-altitude and climate research and an observatory, but also a conference centre. Ten employees from the fields of research, engineering, event management and public relations are permanently on site during the day. (sco)
The Zugspitze is well monitored. According to the researcher, there is no acute danger of collapse for the time being, unlike in other regions in the Alps. Krautblatter and his team are not only researching permafrost systems, but also hand movements and natural hazards such as rockfalls and mudslides.
We have closed sections of the Höllentalklamm twice. Two months later, we knew why.
Michael Krautblatter, Professor of Slope Movement at the Technical University of Munich
Since 2016, they have also been monitoring the Höllentalklamm, and now also the Partnachklamm. Fissurometers measure cracks in rocks every ten minutes. Laser scanners are used twice a year. Once a year, rock towers are measured by tachymeter, which makes it possible to determine the fall velocities and angles of inclination of potentially breaking rocks.
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From here - about 60 meters below the summit of the Zugspitze - you can no longer walk upright in the ridge tunnel. © Cornelia Schramm
If a rock moves by more than one millimetre overnight – for example after a thunderstorm – the researchers' early warning system kicks in: the Höllentalklamm gorge would be closed to hikers and the critical spot would be assessed with the DAV. "There has never been a closure like this before, but we have already closed individual sections of the path twice and diverted them via tunnels," says Krautblatter. "When there were boulders on the sections two months later, we knew why."
Michael Krautblatter and his team are also conducting research on the Hochvogel in the Allgäu region
The Hochvogel in the Allgäu is also being researched in detail. The mountain divides, that's how hard the "bedload herds" work. An important finding: Heavy precipitation accelerates rockfalls – by a factor of six to seven. Researchers are now able to calculate down to the millimetre at which angle rocks break off and where they land. Digital colour diagrams reveal how great the fall potential of individual rocks is: red means "falls soon", green "holds", yellow "still holds".
In ten to 15 years, all permafrost will be gone at the level of the Zugspitz ridge tunnel.
Michael Krautblatter, geologist and geographer
"People or buildings are not acutely threatened at the Hochvogel, but paths such as Bäumenheimer Weg are already closed," says Krautblatter. "Hikers risk their lives here. On camera footage, you can see boulders falling just after someone has passed." Blowing up the path purely as a precaution is out of the question. This costs several million euros.
TUM-Alpha: New facility to develop an early warning system for dangers on the mountain
In the future, however, natural hazards will not only threaten mountain sports. Roads or railways could also increasingly be buried. For this reason, Krautblatter's Chair of Slope Movements has now founded its new facility TUM-Alpha (TUM Center for Alpine Hazards and Risks) in the Schneefernerhaus. The centre is intended to be a point of contact for affected institutions such as the mountain rescue service, the German Alpine Club, hut keepers and mountain railway operators, as well as for municipalities and the Ministry of the Environment.
Michael Krautblatter presents his new research facility TUM-Alpha Center for Alpine Hazards and Risks at the Schneefernerhaus. © Cornelia Schramm
Krautblatter had invited 50 representatives from Switzerland, Tyrol and South Tyrol to discuss early warning systems. So that the balancing act between tourism and security can be mastered in the future despite climate change. (sco)