Karwendel

The Karwendel is the largest range of the Northern Limestone Alps. Four chains stretch from west to east; in addition, there are a number of fringe ranges and an extensive promontory in the north.

The term Karwendel describes the part of the Alps between the Isar and Inn rivers and the Achensee.

Hermann von Barth created the tradition of naming the ranges after the valley limiting them in the south: Karwendel Valley, Hinterau Valley and Vomper Loch, Gleiersch Valley, Hall Valley, Inn Valley: Northern Karwendel Range, Hinterautal-Vomper Range (a.k.a. main Karwendel Range), Gleiersch-Halltal Range and Nordkette (a.k.a. Solstein Range or Inn Valley Range). Side ranges are the Erlspitze Group, Soiern Group and Vorkarwendel, Falken Group, Gamsjoch Group and Sonnjoch Group.

Peaks

There are 125 peaks in the Karwendel that reach heights of over 2,000 metres. The most important are listed below together with some notable peaks between 1,800 and 2,000 metres high.

Alpine Huts

In the Karwendel, among the 21 Alpine Huts 18 are run by the German or Austrian Alpine Clubs:

Karwendel (train)

The Karwendel is an international train service between Germany and Austria. The train was named after the mountain range forming the German-Austrian border south of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The train was introduced as Karwendel Express in 1930 by the Deutsche Reichsbahn, linking Munich with Innsbruck using the scenic route Mittenwald Railway through the mountains with the border crossing at Mittenwald and calling at the 1936 Winter Olympics venues in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The operation ceased in World War II.

In 1969 the Deutsche Bundesbahn reintroduced the train using VT 11.5 TEE diesel multiple units. The Saturday only train was classified as touristtrain serving several wintersport resorts along the Karwendelbahn between Garmisch and Seefeld. The service started in Frankfurt am Main, much farther north then the pre-war start at Munich. From the introduction of the Intercity system in 1979 the train was named IC Karwendel

In May 1979 a daily Intercity service from Bremen to Innsbruck named Karwendel has been introduced. On 31 May 1987 it was one of the initial EuroCity services. The EuroCity started as far north as Hamburg but its initial southern terminus Innsbruck was already changed to Seefeld by September 1987 and after only one year as EuroCity the train was reconverted into an Intercity