What is the main setting in the novel, Where Eagles Dare?

The novel is set behind enemy lines in Nazi Germany during the Second World War in the early (winter) months of 1944. The vast majority of the action occurs at several locations on the Weissspitze, a mountain in Southern Germany near the Swiss border. There is a blizzard raging throughout most of the time Smith and the other main characters are on the mountain, and this is crucial to the novel's plot. The blinding snow, driving wind, and extreme cold on the mountain serve to make it a bleak and dangerous place, and impacts the main characters' actions throughout the novel as they are forced to survive both the Germans and the harsh elements.

Just under half of the novel is set in Schloss Adler - the castle of the eagle - which is an impregnable castle fortress built on a peak of the mountain several hundred feet above a small village. Because the blizzard has blocked the one road leading up to the castle, the only way in or out of Schloss Adler is via a cable car which runs from the village to the castle. The remote and seemingly unreachable location of Schloss Adler and its huge size are crucial to the plot as the mission revolves around getting in and out of this massive and impossibly situated structure in a very short period of time.