Kahler Asten

Thanks to its exposed location and great importance as a winter sports area, the Kahle Asten is much better known than the two-metre higher Langenberg. As on the Kahler Pön and the Ettelsberg near Willingen, there are still remnants of a typical high heath landscape here. The area of the Kahler Asten also lies on the main watershed between the Rhine and Weser river systems. The Lenne has its source not far from the summit. Its tapped spring, which only carries water intermittently, lies 835 m above sea level, making it the highest spring in the entire Rothaargebirge.

The Astenturm tower offers an outstanding view of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. On a clear day, you can even see the Großer Feldberg in the Taunus and the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön. Due to the climate, which is characterized by Atlantic westerly winds, the German Weather Service operates a weather station here, which can also be visited. The permanent exhibition at the LWL Museum of Natural History is also well worth a visit.

The summit of the Kahler Asten is located around 3.3 km southwest of Winterberg town center - between the districts of Altastenberg to the northwest, Neuastenberg to the south and Lenneplätze to the southwest.

Geology: The Kahle Asten consists mainly of schistose claystones and quartzitic sandstones from the Middle Devonian period. These rock units were given the name "Asten layers" due to their characteristic occurrence on the Kahle Asten. The particularly hard quartzites, which occur in banks, are ideal as building material - the foundations of the Astenturm were also built from them.

Age of the rocks: Asten layers - upper Eifel stage, Middle Devonian (about 388 million years old).

Use of the rocks: There are numerous quarries in the vicinity of Winterberg where the sandstones and quartzites of the Asten strata were extracted both for building houses and for making gravel for roads.