Mount Weed to Silverhorn Mountain Traverse Route Map (see link in desciption - or click here - for interactive version).

Standing on the top of Mount Weed, I Initially thought there might be an option to drop halfway down the ascent gully, and then traverse left to the ridge. I was hoping we might find a way down to the east side of the ridge that would take us to Silverhorn with less elevation loss. Upon further analysis of the ridge from the east end of Weed's summit however, it looked like the east side of the ridge cliffed out. Our only option would be to see if we could find a route traversing the slopes on the west side of the ridge, once we'd lost all the elevation to the bottom of Weed's steep ascent gully!

Scrambling down some of the solid rock, near the top of the gully.

Once below the solid rock, we continued to descend down scree until near the bottom of the gully, when we could start traversing towards Silverhorn!

At the base of the gully, just before starting the traverse! Weed's ascent gully curves up to the left, above my dad.

The traverse started off pretty brutal, side-hilling on steep, hard dirt! What are we getting ourselves into!?

Our approx. route down (and up) Mount Weed.

My dad looks like a tiny speck on this big slope! Soon the side-hilling did improve (on soft dirt and scree), which was a good thing, because it's a lot more of it than I initially thought to reach the beginning of the ridge to Silverhorn! The first highpoint on the ridge can be seen (center-right) with a patch of snow. The summit of Silverhorn (darker grey) is in the distance, peeking out just to the right of that!

When on the summit of Weed, we had briefly considered another route that involved traversing higher up, rather than descending to the base of Weed's ascent gully. This idea was quickly discarded however, as it would have meant side-hilling on downsloping scree, right above cliffs! Now, the reason I'm pointing that out, is because had we taken that route, we would have ended up at the col to the right of the pointy rock outcropping shown here. Looking back, it became clear that the only option from the col would have been to descend to where we were anyway. So it looks like we made the right call!

There were multiple "bowls" that we traversed across, repeatedly reaching a ridge, just to see another bowl on the other side! Could this be that last one?!

Looking back at the multiple "bowls"!

No more bowls! Finally on the ridge to Silverhorn!!

Glacial waterfall across the valley!

Looking back to Weed from the first highpoint along the ridge! Note how the east side of the ridge wouldn't have saved elevation losses anyway.

Continuing along the ridge.

Getting closer!

Looking back along the ridge. It gets a little bit jagged in places, but there is always an option to easily detour on the right.

One more major highpoint, and then the summit!!

Slogging up scree.

Woah! That's some funky lookin' scree!

Those slabs just below Silverhorn's summit look pretty steep from this angle!...They prove to be easy though :)

A bit of hands-on scrambling!

Weed looks so far away as we approach the summit of Silverhorn!

Summit register placed in 1992! And only a handful of entries to date!

Our entry!

Cool view of "raised" fields of scree to the north-east! Quill Peak rises center!

Bow Peak, Mount Temple (distant), Bowcrow Peak, Mount Victoria (distant), and Crowfoot Mountain above Bow Lake (left to right)!

Mount Balfour rises center, with Olive and Gordon to the right. In the foreground, we have Jimmy Jr. peeking out to the left of an unnamed peak (center-right), with Jimmy Simpson rising to the right.

Caldron Mountain rises to the right of Peyto Lake, with Peyto Peak and Baker behind! Glaciated Mounts Rhondda and Habel rise center, with Thompson above Jimmy Simpson to the left!

Mistaya Mountain with its glacial run-off!

Howse Peak towers above Upper Waterfowl Lake! Mount Forbes rises to the left!

White Pyramid, Mount Chephren, and Mount Sarbach (left to right)!

We were up there a few hours ago?! The scramble route we took up Mount Weed sure looks intimidating from here! Bison Peak is the pyramidal shape to the left, with glaciated Wilson in the distance. Mount Noyes can be seen peeking out to the right!

My dad, on the summit of Silverhorn Mountain!

Two summit goal complete! Mount Weed (summit #1) towers behind me, to the right! Photo credit: Dad

Dagger-like Recondite Peak!

Unique angle of Observation Peak!

My dad starts making his way down the ridge...

...while I continue to take pictures on top! Haha, sorry dad! I'll hurry up ;) Photo credit: Dad

Summit pano!

And another one!

Summit selfie!...wait, but dad already left the summit...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We found a way up...Now we just gotta find a way down this thing! We chose to try the gully that leads down from the low-point in the ridge just ahead...

...this one! Doesn't look too fun...Hope we don't get cliffed out!!

Making my way down the gully. Photo credit: Dad

Near the bottom, we traversed out of the gully, to the right, onto more solid rock. I later learned (after reading Silverhorn's description in Nugara's book) that you can entirely avoid the gully by using this solid rock for most of the ascent/descent! Oh well.

Our approximate route down from the ridge.

Looking back. On the lower slopes, we initially side-hilled on the dirt on skier's left side of the drainage, but soon the dirt became too hard packed and steep to traverse. After my dad slipped, and slid a few meters down the slope, before a large, wedged-in rock saved him from gaining speed down to the drainage below, I made the executive decision to voluntarily descend to the drainage and try the other side.

Hiking down in the drainage was much more pleasant (and safe!).

Eventually we got cliffed out by a waterfall, and had to back-track up the treed slopes to the right. Photo credit: Dad

Looking back at the waterfall. We detoured up and around, on the left side of this picture.

Looking back up the lower drainage, almost back at the highway!

Still 1km to where we parked for Mount Weed many hours ago! As Nugara warns, bagging both Weed and Silverhorn in a single day makes for a long day...But a very rewarding, long day at that! I greatly enjoyed this adventure, never knowing what comes next, just letting your nose guide you. There's something special about the feeling of accomplishment when your route works out :)! What I never would have guessed, is that we would do something just like it again the next day...