Bavarian Alps

The Bavarian Alps () are a section of the Northern Eastern Alps ("Nördlichen Ostalpen") in the international unified orographic classification of the Alps (SOIUSA) according to Sergio Marazzi. The same name is used in the Partizione delle Alpi for a mountain group of the Central Alps, but there it covers a larger area. The term "Bavarian Alps" is not used in the mountain classification of the Eastern Alps developed by the German-speaking Alpine Clubs. In contrast, the large natural region of the Swabian-Bavarian Pre-Alps largely coincides with the Bavarian Alps, but does not include some parts of the landscape (see below).
In a broader sense, "Bavarian Alps" also stands for the part of the Alps located on Bavarian or German territory. Bavaria is the only German state that has a share of the Alps. Mostly, however, the Bavarian Alps are understood to mean only the mountain parts located between the rivers Lech and Saalach in Germany. With this interpretation, therefore, the Allgäu Alps, to which the Bavarian territory has only recently extended, and the Berchtesgaden Alps do not belong to the Bavarian Alps.
The Bavarian Alps are to be distinguished from the Bavarian Prealps. The latter comprise only the Bavarian part of the Pre-Alps between the Loisach in the west and the Inn in the east.
Classification.
Most of the subsections of the Bavarian Alps according to SOIUSA each correspond to a group of the Alpine Club Division of the Eastern Alps (AVE). Only the Wallgau Alps and Mangfall Mountains subsections are combined in the AVE to form the Bavarian Pre-Alps group.
The Partizione delle Alpi uses the term Bavarian Alps for the entire area of the SOIUSA sections of the North Tyrolean Limestone Alps and Bavarian Alps west of the Inn.
Parts of the Alps lying in Bavaria.
The following table contains all mountain groups of the Alps that are at least partly located in Bavaria and thus in Germany - in the initial overview sorted roughly from west to east and indicated with maximum altitude in meters (m) above sea level (NHN). The highest mountains and heights listed refer to the part of the mountain groups that lies in Bavaria and not to the entire mountain group. For example, the highest mountain in the Allgäu Alps, the 2656-meter-high Großer Krottenkopf, is located in Tyrol and is consequently not included in the table.
The highest elevation of the Alps in Germany is the Zugspitze. It is located in the western part of the Wetterstein Mountains - which, however, do not belong to the Bavarian Alps - and has a high alpine character with a height of 2,962 m above sea level as well as two small glaciers (see high mountains). Also the partly high alpine Berchtesgaden Alps do not belong to the group of the Bavarian Alps.
Landscape.
Like the Alps as a whole, the Bavarian Alps as part of the Northern Alps were strongly shaped by the last ice age. Kare, lakes and the typical U-shaped valleys were formed by glaciers. Deposits of the ice-age rivers as well as especially the glaciers created a hilly landscape with lakes and bogs, especially in the foothills of the Alps.