Rock Climbing (EC Puzzle Hunt)
| Rock Climbing | |
|---|---|
| EC Puzzle Hunt | |
| Exploring | |
| Author(s) | quatrevingtneuf |
| Answer | Click to revealFUJI |
| Statistics | |
| No. solves | 96 |
| No. total guesses | 213 |
| Links | |
| Puzzle | Link |
| Solution | Link |
| Checker | Link |
| Stats | Link |
Rock Climbing is a puzzle in the introductory round of EC Puzzle Hunt. It utilizes cryptic clues, as well as a certain other gimmick.
Solve Path[edit | edit source]
Solvers are presented with 5 sets of crossword clues and a 10x5 grid which, strangely, is presented isometrically. Also odd is the fact that, while the numbered arrows suggest entering each set of clue answers into a row in the grid, solving the clues reveals that the answers are all too long for each set to fit in the grid comfortably. The key here is the flavortext's reference to "ascending and descending"; this, combined with the fact that the clues are all lowercase, suggests that letters that ascend or descend are significant. In fact, when you remove the ascenders and descenders, there are exactly 10 letters left over in each row. Hence, it makes sense to consider each ascender as a "rising edge" and each descender as a "falling edge" in a three dimensional landscape: the elevation of a row increases when encountering an ascender and decreases when encountering a descender. Other letters signify proceeding forward, left-to-right. This results in exactly two distinct levels, with the elevated cells forming the answer: FUJI.
Puzzle Elements[edit | edit source]
Cryptic Crossword - This puzzle involves cryptic-style clues.
