The spread of the stratospheric plume from the explosive eruption of the Philippine volcano Pinatubo in mid-June 1991 has been observed at Garmisch by lidar since July 1, 1991. The layered structure of the volcanic debris can be related to three transport phases to northern mid-latitudes. The aerosols centered at 15--17 km were transported to Garmisch in early July by the shortest possible route. The double layered aerosol structure observed in August coincided with the typical transport pattern at mid-latitudes in summer with westerlies below 20 km and easterlies above. After the change to the winter wind regime with westerlies throughout the altitude range of stratospheric aerosols, one large layer was observed since the beginning of October, extending from the tropopause to about 28 km. This transport pattern and the layered structure of aerosols is similar to that which had been observed at the same lidar site after the El Chich¿n eruption in 1982. ¿American Geophysical Union 1992