Eckerloch

The Eckerloch was the site of one of several Harz granite quarries in the vicinity of Schierke.

In the 1920s the locals built the first ski jump on the Eckerloch, with the permission of the chamber of the prince of Stolberg-Wernigerode. The site was chosen due to it good snow conditions after the ski jump on the southern slopes of the Erdbeerkopf had been abandoned. It became one of the well-known jumps in the Harz.^[1]

In 1950 the first East German ski jumping championships took place here on a new jump, but it was soon abandoned due to its proximity to the Inner German Border and was demolished in the 1970s.^[1]

The Brocken Railway had a station built here for the ski jumping championships, but it was closed immediately afterwards and is now just a request stop. After a tight left hand bend before the Eckerloch Bridge and another right-hander, the line reaches Goetheweg station (956 m), which is now only used as a locomotive depot.

The Eckerloch is on one of the most scenic hiking trails in the Harz. The Old Königsberg Way (alte Königsbergweg), one of two trails that ran to the top of the Königsberg mountain, began near Eckerloch and ran uphill, alongside the old Königsberg Quarry, up to the Kanzelklippen crags. From there it ran over the Rabenklippe, the old Eckerloch ski jump, towards the Kesselklippe and then through the Goethe Moor to the station at Goetheweg. It ran along the entire ridge to the Hirschhornklippen.

There is a rest area here along with a checkpoint here (No. 11) in the Harzer Wandernadel hiking system.

51°47′06″N 10°37′04″E / 51.7850°N 10.6178°E / 51.7850; 10.6178