Westweg: Etappe 10 West (Hinterzarten - Wiedener Eck)

Without a doubt, the most popular stage of the Westweg is the crossing of the Feldberg from east to west. At the top of the windswept summit, the highest point in the German low mountain range, it's not just Westweg hikers who feel like they've reached the summit. Some would probably like to linger longer and enjoy the magnificent panoramic view if it weren't for the long walk to Wiedener Eck.

From Oberzarten, the Westweg initially follows the romantic Zartenbach valley. Signposts indicate a short detour to the pretty Mathisleweiher, a former rafting pond. Slowly ascending, you reach the clearing "Am Feldberg", where there are a few forest farms.

At Rufenholzplatz, the path begins to climb more clearly. The forest path gradually turns into an alpine trail through primeval spruce forest. On the back of the immense walls of the Feldseekar, the forest offers occasional views of the shimmering green Feldsee lying deep below.

Above the tree line, the trail climbs through the Grüble, where there can still be snow even in summer, into the wide saddle between Seebuck on the left and the Feldberg summit on the right. A good twenty minutes later, you have reached "the highest point" in the Black Forest.The viewing island on the 1,495-metre-high Feldberg marks the highest point in Germany outside the Alps. In good weather, the 360-degree panoramic view is correspondingly spectacular: To the north and east, the Black Forest heights disappear into the horizon, to the west the Vosges seem to float above the Rhine plain, but the showpiece is the broad Alpine panorama to the south.The Westweg descends as a narrow path with high steps to the St. Wilhelmer Hütte, from where it follows the connecting mountain ridge to the Belchen. The bare and elongated ridge of the Stübenwasen (1,386m) impresses with a magnificent Alpine panorama. Behind the Notschrei pass, the trail climbs once again, circles the Trubelsmattkopf and reaches the Wiedener Eck via open meadow slopes.