To do this traverse in either direction requires a map, compass, +/- GPS, solid navigation skills and strong scrambling ability. Even in August, an ice-axe may be necessary.
SILVER SPRAY – WOODBURY TRAVERSE
From the Silver Spray cabin, walk south/SW and climb Evening Star Peak. Angle SW, traverse past two tarns and after curving out of the second tarn’s basin, veer NW and stay above a third, larger tarn. Then go SW again, toward Moonlight Peak. Beneath the peak, descend steeply SE to Woodbury cabin.
It’s not as easy as it sounds.
WOODBURY – SILVER SPRAY LOOP by Kim Kratky
A circuit is often made. From the parking lot and then the Woodbury Cabin, climb Moonlight Peak (northeast ridge) and Mount Kemball (descend by the southeast ridge) and descend to the east to a tiny lake. Climb east over the long south rock ridge of the bump at 920-178. The east side is steep but without undue difficulty. Cross another basin and go up the southwest face (or west ridge) of Evening Star Peak, descend east and cross two more basins and ascend a rib overlooking the long, narrow lake at 933-182. Travel north to the Silver Spray Cabin and return by trail to the Woodbury Creek parking lot, 20 kilometres in 13 hours.
WOODBURY TO SILVER SPRAY TRAVERSE
My goal was to do a hut-to-hut traverse and scramble some peaks along the way. We took the Woodbury Creek trail to Woodbury Hut (2.5 hrs.), where I perused the hut logbook. I remember reading when I was here with Hamish in ’91 that someone had written about climbing the S. ridge of Moonlight Pk.
So here’s what I found. David Smith and his son Chris (age 14) did the S. Ridge on August 22, 1991. Dave is from Nelson and I think he’s a licensed mountain guide. Am I right? They hiked to a col W. of the hut and then ascended the S. ridge to the S. summit. This seems to be popular with hikers. From the S. summit, the ridge was class 4 over numerous pinnacles and along knife-edge ridges; there were lots of points to place protection. Some loose rock. Three hours up from the hut. They descended via the NE ridge and returned to the hut in 1.5 hours.
Here was our route. Climb to col N. of the hut (7,900′) and traverse the basin to Moonlight-Kemball ridge. Climb the NE ridge of Moonlight, class 3 over solid-looking rock that is somewhat loose. Short walls and some big blocks at the lower end of the route. Easy slabs near the summit. Can traverse left and right on the ridge to avoid obstacles. The ridge took about 30-40 min. to do; the summit was reached in l.5 hrs. from the hut. An enjoyable short scramble. Moonlight has definitely been climbed before by this route.
After descending the NE ridge, we traversed along to Mt. Kemball, which we did by its SW ridge. It’s an easy scramble, less interesting than Moonlight, but still not a walk (about 1 hr. from the summit of Moonlight). There’s another lower summit on Kemball to the N. It too had a cairn.
We descended Kemball by its SE ridge, then dropped off to the N. and descended to a tiny lake. We then climbed to the E. and crossed the long S. ridge of the bump at 920178. The E. side of this ridge was much more precipitous than I had surmised, but we were able to work our way down without undue difficulty. Yet another basin to cross before we staggered up the SE face of Evening Star Pk. (not of climbing interest). By this time it was 3:00 pm, and we had been going for nine hours.
We then descended E. from Evening Star, crossed two more basins, and ascended a rib overlooking the long, narrow lake located at 933182. Some travel N. over boulder fields and open country got us to the Silver Spray Hut by about 4:15. Here we picked up the Silver Spray trail and followed it back to the Woodbury Creek trail parking lot, this last section taking two hours. By 6:30 pm we were back to the truck, having slogged about 19.5 km. in 12.5 hours.
This route seems to be done fairly often, though not, I would guess, as a day trip. Doing it from Silver Spray to Woodbury appears to be more popular: Mike Hryniuk did it this way last year, and Hamish soloed it in poor weather this July. Hamish, by the way, believes that Evening Star Pk. is in the wrong spot on the map. He thinks it should be the two pinnacles at 930182, which he climbed on his outing. They are certainly higher and more impressive than Evening Star, but then some pretty insignificant things in Kokanee Glacier Park have names attached to them. This whole area is not of much climbing interest, but it does give one opportunity for an alpine experience close to home.