[1][2][3][4][5] Schneeferner glacier is located on the Zugspitzplatt, a plateau south of the country's highest peak, the Zugspitze, that descends from west to east and forms the head of the Reintal valley.

In the 19th century, towards the end of the Little Ice Age, a large glacier, the Plattachferner, covered almost the entire Zugspitzplatt between the Jubiläumsgrat arête and the Plattspitzen peaks.

[6] Thereafter the glacier's retreat was less drastic and the remaining sections of the Northern Schneeferner tended to just shrink in thickness due to their location in a basin.

North of the glacier is the arête running from the Zugspitze to the Zugspitzeck; in the west it almost reaches the wide Schneefernerscharte (Schneeferner wind gap).

The glacier is mainly fed by precipitation falling directly onto its surface; it is also supplied with snow from avalanches that sweep down from the rocks of the Zugspitzeck and the Schneefernerkopf.

The velocity at which the glacier moves is only about 25 to 30 cm (9.8 to 11.8 in) per year in its central section[10] and there is hardly any movement of glacial mass at lower altitudes.

Although preference is given to covering the areas in which glacial melting under natural conditions would be the fastest, these measures have had little effect on the life of the glacier to date.

[13] At the end of the 20th century the glacier had split up into a southeastern part below the Wetterwandeck and a northwestern area below the Wetterspitzen, which later divided into the last remaining large sheet of ice and several smaller firn fields.

In the summer of 2022, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences officially revoked the Southern Schneeferner's classification as a glacier, citing the overall loss of coverage, thickness and movement of ice.