Huckleberry

Hey...I was on Colonel Foster from August 26-29. My climbing partner and I went up Expressway, which links up with the Cataract Arete and the Summit Glacier. The start of Expressway is pretty close to the Culbert Route, and it just so happens that the location we chose to get off the glacier and onto the base of the Colonel was the same location your group did....The first thing we noticed was the pair of crampons sitting there. We contemplated taking them out with us and leaving them somewhere. We also contemplated returning to pick them up after the climb. However, as mountains go, the Colonel was a challenge and we didn't return to Foster Lake until 2:40am the following day. Our first day took us 15 hours to get to a nice ledge just below the Arete. The second day took us a full 24 hours to summit, get down the South Col and back to Foster Lake, and get back to my truck before we were reported MIA. We also found the descent to be pretty challenging, in terms of finding the route down. We only had to do one rappel to get off of a rib and into a ravine, from where we climbed back up onto another rib. It's hard to say exactly where we descended seems we did so in darkness. Fortunately, we made it down! Our route must have been different than yours because we used out crampons frequently - once on the summit glacier and several times on the descent. In any case, the climb was well worth it and is waiting to be done again...this time with more finesse (and better timing). Maybe your crampons will still be there for you.