The mountain consists mainly of Wetterstein limestone from the Upper Triassic with dasycladales - marine algae whose natural habitat is shallow lagoons in tropical climates.

Because the path cannot be used in winter, there is also a lift in the middle of the mountain for employees of the observatory, weather service and transmission site, accessed from the station of the rack railway through a tunnel.

[citation needed] Since its renovation in the early 1990s, it has been worked by modern railcars that have reduced journey times from over 50 minutes to about half an hour.

[citation needed] Near the rack railway mountain station is the Wendelstein Cave with several stalactites and stalagmites, and which contain ice until well into the summer months.

It is dedicated to the Patrona Bavariae and is managed by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising as a satellite church of the parish of Maria Himmelfahrt in Brannenburg.

[citation needed] On the summit of the Wendelstein there is a weather station belonging to the German Meteorological Office, which is staffed around the clock, and an observatory of the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Due to increasing air pollution and research priorities switching back to night-time astronomy, scientific observations of the Sun were ceased in the 1980s.

Searches were conducted from the Wendelstein for extrasolar planets by evaluating occultations and research is carried out on variable stars in dwarf galaxies using an 80-cm telescope and CCD cameras.

[citation needed] In spite of numerous explosions and other construction projects in the past 40 years, most of the runs on the Wendelstein are steep rugged slopes that are only suitable for experienced skiers.

[citation needed] Throughout the year members of the Brannenburg Mountain Rescue Service are on duty at the Klausen Hut (opposite the Wendelstein Church) and in the ski area.