You are a mountain climber

Three years ago you spent the summer at a climbing school in the mountains of Colorado. Your instructors said that you had natural skills as a climber. You made rapid progress, and by the end of the summer you were leading difficult rock and ice climbs.

That summer, you became close friends with a boy named Carlos. The two of you made a good climbing team. Last year you and he were chosen to join an international team. The expedition made it to the top of two unclimbed peaks in South America.

One night on that expedition, the group was seated around the cook tent at the base camp. The expedition leader, Franz, told stories of climbing in the Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world.

The Himalayas form a great natural wall between India and China, with Nepal tucked in amid the peaks. Everest, K2 and Annapurna are the best-known mountains in the Himalayas. These and many other peaks have been climbed. Still others lie in remote areas where few humans have gone. There, said Franz, in the high valleys beneath the snowfields, lives the Yeti, sometimes called the Abominable Snowman.

“The Yeti is a huge beast,” Franz tells you, “perhaps a cross between a gorilla and a human. People cannot agree what it is.”
“Is the Yeti dangerous?” Carlos asked.
Franz shrugged. “Some say it is. Other people say the Yeti is very gentle.”
“Have you ever seen one?” you inquire.
“No. Almost no one has. The best roof of the Yeti’s existence is a set of very large footprints discovered in the 1950s by a British expedition. No one has ever photographed one that I have heard,” Franz answers. “But still the stories persist.”

You and Carlos decided then and there to find the Yeti. When you returned from South America, the two of you raised money from the International Foundation For Research Into Strange Phenomena. Your goal: proof positive that Yeti exist. You will find and photograph the Yeti.

That is what brings you to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Your problems, though, have already begun. Two days ago Carlos left by helicopter to look over the terrain near Mt. Everest. The helicopter returned without him. The pilot told you that Carlos decided to stay up at the Everest base camp to check out a report that a Yeti had been seen. He had a radio transmitter, but you have received no word from him. The weather turned bad and radio communication was interrupted.

You have an appointment to speak with R.N. Runal, the Director of Expeditions and Mountain Research and an authority on the Yeti. He knows of your plans. You need his help with official permits for the expedition. He will also have good advice and information. But what about Carlos?

  • Cancel your meeting with Runal and search for Carlos
  • Carlos is OK, go ahead with your plan to meet Runal

0 voters

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Kill Jester

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I’m away for lunch, poll will close when I get back.

@Twinkletoes to translate.

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I hope that best roof isn’t going to be subjected to Kasabian at any point in this story.

I assumed Dingers was doing a racist accent

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no i think you might have me confused for someone else

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We don’t know Franz’s nationality. Are we supposed to be guessing from the accent?

I’ll be honest. I was ahem rock hard after the first paragraph but the rest has left me quite underwhelmed

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I’ll be honest, I haven’t read the op.

As ‘pioneer of the month’ I’m obliged to keep on top of things like this.

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You walk down a street bordered by tall pines. They are green-blue, and the branches and needles are very fine and delicate. Hanging from the upper branches are what look like huge, tear-shaped, blackish-brown fruit. You stop and look up, wondering what they are. Then one moves, spreads giant wings, and flaps off. They are bats, the largest bats you have ever seen!

You reach the Foreign Ministry, and you are shown to a waiting room. You wait a few minutes and then are ushered in to meet R. N. Runal, Director of Expeditions and Mountain Research for the Nepalese Government.

“Welcome to our country. We wish you success. But I have some bad news. The expedition you have proposed could be very dangerous.”

You look at him, not knowing what to expect.

“Recently, a large expedition set out without telling us that they were going after the Yeti,” says Runal. “They used guns and traps, and tried to kill one of them. The Yeti are angry.”
“Mr. Runal, we just want to find a Yeti. We have no intention of ever hurting a Yeti.”
“I know that. We have checked up on you. It is a shame about the others. I must advise against going into Yeti territory - I could arrange trips for you into the Terai region, out of the mountains, in the jungle area. You could photograph and study the tigers. They are famous, and also dangerous. Later, perhaps, you could conduct the expedition you are leading.”

  • Go ahead with the expedition for the Yeti
  • Postpone the expedition to let the Yeti calm down and go on to the Terai region in search of tigers

0 voters

I’m not sure I trust R N Runal.

You’ve voted to follow his advice.

double bluff

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(also, hopeful that we might actually find @tigercrewtc )

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I don’t trust him either. I went for the triple bluff option.

oof.

he won’t know what’s hit him!

I don’t really mind tbqh.

my boss just saw me staring intensely at a spreadsheet with ‘R N R U N A L’ in it (and nothing else).

I was looking for anagrams btw

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