Schneeferner, Mountain glacier near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

Schneeferner is a glacier on the Zugspitze in Germany and sits at around 2580 meters (8465 feet) elevation between the rocky slopes of the mountain. The ice surfaces stretch across two separate areas and are surrounded by steep rock walls and scree fields.

Towards the end of the Little Ice Age in the 19th century, a single glacier called the Plattachferner covered almost the whole Zugspitzplatt, about 300 hectares, and left large moraines that are still visible. From about 1860 to the 1950s it lost roughly 23,000 square metres a year and shrank to about 60 hectares. Around 1900 it split into a northern and a southern part; the Eastern Schneeferner below the summit later separated and has disappeared entirely. The southern Schneeferner lost its glacier status in 2022.

The name Schneeferner comes from the German for "snow field". Since 1955 five ski lifts have stood on the ice, forming Germany's only glacier ski area, and summer skiing was once possible here. Since 1993 sections have been covered with tarpaulins each summer to slow melting.

The glacier is accessible via the Zugspitze railway, which runs daily from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to the summit. Warm clothing and sturdy footwear are necessary, as wind and cold are noticeable even in summer at this elevation.

The Northern Schneeferner is the second-largest of Germany's four remaining glaciers, measured at about 9.4 hectares in 2025, down from just over 16 hectares in 2018. Its ice averaged 10.6 metres thick in 2018, with a maximum of 33 metres. In the record summer of 2003 it released 35,000 cubic metres of meltwater a day, roughly a tenth of Munich's average water consumption.