Berchtesgaden lies snug against Bavaria's southeastern border in the shadow of the Obersalzberg massif. Just a cat's leap from Austria, is what the locals say.
It is an area both hauntingly beautiful and unquestionably haunted. Cow bells jangle in alpine pastures, but this isn't Heidi country. Rather, the landscape is a Wagnerian extravaganza of no less than six formidable mountain ranges. Intimidating peaks and deadly precipices thrust up from forested valleys that cradle serene and gleaming mountain lakes. Even in June, traces of stubborn snow dot the peaks, and the streams that spill down the slopes are still bitterly cold despite the heat of the early summer sun.
The hiking here in the 210-sq.-km Berchtesgaden National Park is said to be some of the best in Germany, the mountaineering some of the most dangerous, particularly on the 2,000-meter rock face of the Watzmann-Ostwand. Fatalities are almost routine. Scores annually, said my guidebook.