Jochberg hike: a challenging yet beautiful trail near Munich
I’m sitting here in a cosy cafe and going through my pictures and recollections about the Jochberg hike that I did last year. For some reason, I have mixed feelings about this hike. It was probably one of the most challenging hikes I’ve ever done and wasn’t the most picturesque one to be honest. The weather being foggy and cold made it a bit less enjoyable. Yes, I know they say there’s no bad weather for a hike, only bad clothing. And I wasn’t prepared for the freezing weather in May, given the altitude we were hiking to wasn’t much.
On the other hand, I loved being in the forest and surrounded by tall, beautiful trees all the time. The tree-hugger side of me came out as soon as we started this hike.
In this blog post, I wanted to share my experience and some tips for the Jochberg hike.
About the Jochberg hike
Jochberg is just 80.5km from Munich, making for an excellent day trip. It is located near Urfeld and close to the town of Kochel, near the Kochelsee. The mountain is 1567m high and is part of the first range of mountains of the Alps in southern Germany. Jochberg sits in the middle of two glacial lakes, Walchensee and Kochelsee, and is easily accessible by public transportation from Munich.
If you don’t own a car, this hike is a good day hike from Munich!
First, let me note that there are various ways of doing this hike, depending on your timing preferences and fitness level. I didn’t do enough research about it before I went, and I accidentally picked the challenging route with a lot of uphill climbing. I only realized this when I was back in my hotel in Munich, reading other people’s reviews and wildly disagreeing with them, saying, ‘It was an easy beginner’s hike.’
It only clicked when I saw the trailhead they mentioned, which differed from where I started. So, if you want to do an easy, beginner’s version of the Jochberg trail, you must start at Kesselberg.
Trailhead : Link
The easy hiking trail to Jochberg is as follows:
Kesselberg (850m) – Jochberg (1565m) – Jocheralm (1380m) – Kesselberg (850m)
I did the challenging version of this hike starting from Kochel train station and ending in Walchensee, which took me about 5 hours to complete.
Trailhead : Link
The challenging hiking trail to Jochberg is as follows:
Kochel train station (600m) – Sonnenspitz (1269m) – Jocheralm (1380m) – Jochberg (1565m) - Walchensee (801m)
Best time to hike Jochberg
Jochberg is a local favourite. Although summer and late spring are preferred seasons to hike Jochberg, this trail is paved all year around.
What to know before heading to the Jochberg hike
It’s pretty easy to reach via public transport. If you’re based in Munich, take a train to Kochel train station, which will be about an hour.
If you end up at Walchensee and need to return to Munich, you’ll need to catch a bus from Urfeld back to Kochel and take a train back from Kochel. There’s no train station in Urfeld.
If you do the challenging version of the hike, which I did, I’d advise you to bring hiking poles. Your knees will thank you, trust me!
Proper hiking shoes are a must—the trail is very rocky. Also, take enough water and snacks with you.
There’s a mountain hut called Jocheralm, approximately half an hour from the summit, where authentic local Bavarian food is served. However, they only operate during the hiking season (May to mid-October, closed on Mondays), so if you’re planning to stop there, bring cash with you.
If you’re travelling from Munich by train, I highly recommend purchasing a Bayern Ticket. It costs 29 EUR per person and covers all the public transport in Bavaria from 9 a.m. until 3 a.m. the following day. And if you’re travelling with friends, it’s 10 EUR extra for each person, which makes it a very good deal. You can purchase it online here or at Munich Central station.
Have any questions about hiking Jochberg? Leave them in the comments below!