Could something like this ever get built in the US?

[James Bond Agent 007]

In my excursions on Google maps I've recently encountered the Münchner Haus at the summit of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak at 9,700+ feet, and I'm rather flabbergasted that the thing exists at all. Granted, it was first constructed in the late 19th century, but obviously it's been expanded and modernized, probably many times, since then ...

--> Good image of its precarious location <--
--> Another one <--

... Which got me wondering: Would any place in the US ever permit something like that to be built? I'm not sure that even in the late 1800's anywhere in the US (and maybe Canada) would have the guts to build such a large and well-used structure on such a precarious location. But maybe I'm wrong? I know there are plenty of ski huts and clubs at the top of ski slopes in the US, but AFAIK there's nothing in remotely such a precarious position.

We can turn this into a discussion of things that got built elsewhere that would never be permitted to get built in the US.

[xzmattzx]

It's not a hiker's lodge, but there is that big weather station at the top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

Pike's Peak strikes me as the best opportunity for a Zugspitze-style hiker's hut in the US, since it has that road and railway to the top anyway. It's not like it has been preserved as some park or something.

[jmecklenborg]

There's something similar at the top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

There is also the lodge on Mt. Leconte in the Smoky Mountains:
https://www.lecontelodge.com/

[James Bond Agent 007]

Mt Washington isn't remotely like the one on Zugspitze. Mt Washington is basically a large, gentle hill. Same with the Smoky Mountains. Zugspitze is a rock precipice.

Pikes Peak might a better example, but the fact you can drive up to it indicates it's still relatively gentle. Zugspitze is a rock precipice, it would be like building something on the edge of the top of El Capitan in Yosemite, except 9700 feet up.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

Mt Washington isn't remotely like the one on Zugspitze. Mt Washington is basically a large, gentle hill. Same with the Smoky Mountains. Zugspitze is a rock precipice.

Pikes Peak might a better example, but the fact you can drive up to it indicates it's still relatively gentle. Zugspitze is a rock precipice, it would be like building something on the edge of the top of El Capitan in Yosemite, except 9700 feet up.

Is there even a mountain in the US that is a huge rock precipice then?

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Is there even a mountain in the US that is a huge rock precipice then?

There's tons of them.

I think a close equivalent to Zugspitze, both in terms of height and steepness, would be something like
Mt Shuksan in Washington state. I guess this is the view from the top.

Zugspitze looks like this from a distance. You can see the mountain hut on the left peak. Fairly similar to Shuksan.

[mrnyc]

getting touristy crowds up and down is more the issue than the site.

munchner is for hikers, but i dk if that is finacially practical?

ski lifts or a train?

it would probably have to be tied to a ski resort.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

getting touristy crowds up and down is more the issue than the site.

munchner is for hikers, but i dk if that is finacially practical?

ski lifts or a train?

it would probably have to be tied to a ski resort.

Jay Peak in Vermont has a gondola cabin up top that turns into a giant icicle in the dead of winter. I’m gonna get shot down for that suggestion, too. Lol

[MolsonExport]

^been there, froze there.

[MolsonExport]

This is what lies (near) the top of Sulphur Mountain, in Banff National Park (Alberta, Canada)



It is the Gondola Station + levels of gift shops, coffee/snack shops, restaurants, and observatories.

[MolsonExport]

One of two Peak-to-Peak Gondola Stations that connect the top of Whister mountain with Blackcomb mountain (British Columbia, Canada)

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

^been there, froze there.

Yep, so did I.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

Mt Washington isn't remotely like the one on Zugspitze. Mt Washington is basically a large, gentle hill. Same with the Smoky Mountains. Zugspitze is a rock precipice.

Zugspitze is part of the Alps, a young mountain range produced with flat-slab subduction. The only similar mountain range is the rather isolated St. Elias Mountains in Alaska. Other mountain ranges do not have that opportunity for such precipicious structures as the mountains are older and more weathered.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

Zugspitze is part of the Alps, a young mountain range produced with flat-slab subduction. The only similar mountain range is the rather isolated St. Elias Mountains in Alaska. Other mountain ranges do not have that opportunity for such precipicious structures as the mountains are older and more weathered.

There are plenty of mountain ranges in western North America with similar steep, rocky precipices. As I said before, Mt Shuksan in the Cascades would be similar one.

The other ones above in Whistler and Banff are a little closer, but I was thinking of something that's practically hanging off a cliff like the one on Zugspitze.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Here's a better view of the one on Blackcomb. It's actually in a pretty flat area.

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.0962906,..._ep=EgoyMDI2MDYyNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[James Bond Agent 007]

This is just crazy. Can't believe they'd ever try something like this in the US. Lawyers would go crazy, probably it would never get built just because insurance would be too expensive, or something.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Here's the thing at the top of Pikes Peak, it's kind of the same idea but much flatter at the top.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8396884,..._ep=EgoyMDI2MDYyNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[dave8721]

There is the Grand Canyon skywalk for being on (and over) the edge of a cliff in the US.

[KamJacob]

If it was done in the US, it would be in a place like Colorado or maybe California where you currently have a fairly dry climate, but also had extensive glaciation during the ice ages of the pliestocene and holocene periods that grinds along the base of the drainages. That''s what forms the steep sided, U shape profile of all the various features like cirques, gullies, chutes, etc that shape the sides of steep precipitous summits.

Shuksan is inundated with snowfall every winter and it's slopes are laced with glaciers and icefall. The rock is greenshist and is crumblier than harder rocks like granite. There's no feasable way you're building anything without billions. You could possibly find something in the Wenatchee Mountains that had big sheer granite faces, but as with most of the west, the feds own everything and that alone precludes private enterprise from attempting this.

I agree it's an intriguing concept.

[SIGSEGV]

Alyeska resort has a lodge that's kind of on a cliff, I guess?
(wikipedia)

but yeah, the US doesn't do alpine infrastructure like Europe. few gondolas not corresponding to ski resorts, very few mountain cabins to speak of etc. even Romania has better mountain infrastructure...