East Ridge (Ostgrat)

The Ostgrat was the first route to be climbed on the Weisshorn and is considered to be normal route to the summit. Most parties spend a night at the Weisshornhutte (approached from Randa), or bivy at the base of the Schaligletcher. There are several rock rings for bivy spots there. 

Cross the Schaligletcher west and aim for an obvious S-shaped gully. On warm days, the gully could have a torrent of water coming down. Follow cairns and an ok trail zigzagging up the gully, passing a short section with a fixed rope installed as a railing. Once on top of the gully, follow the broken rib directly north, following a cairns over broken rock slabs. There are many possible lines, with varying rock quality, all mostly 3rd and 4th class scramble. At around 3500 meters, trend left until you stand at the base of a steep wall. Make a sharp turn west, and traverse under the wall for a short time (10m?) until you get to a steep left trending gully/chimney (5.0?). There's a bolt and a tat rap anchor on top. Turn left and around the corner, then continue up northwest until you reach the ridge proper at 3914m (Frunstuckplatz). Up to this point the rock is of ok quality if you stay on the right path, although there's looser rock if you deviate from it. The ridge proper has excellent solid rock.

From Fruhstuckplatz, climb the ridge proper over 4th-5.3 terrain, with occasional bolts protecting the route. Climb directly on top of the ridge for the most part. The climbing is never harder than 5.3, and even those sections are relatively short. 

Halfway through, the rock gives way to a 45 degree snow slope. Continue up the ridge line, and occasionally move to the face to avoid cornices that form on the south side of the ridge. Cross a bergshund arround 4200-4300m and continue up to the summit. In late summer the final slopes can be icy, but the climbing is never steeper than 45 degrees. The WI2 grade only applies to late season icy conditions.

The ascent takes 6-8h.

Descend: 1) reverse the route, either downclimbing everything, or rappeling the occasional hard section via existing anchors; we only did one abseil at around 3400m. 2) Descend the North Ridge

GPS tracks (drawn + recorded on route): caltopo.com/m/A1QM ;