Down Into the Cave

Medium — logic-grid deduction puzzle

Five cartographers took turns mapping a narrow cave from dawn to dusk, each with one instrument and one trail snack.

Five cartographers met at the mouth of a cave they meant to map: Alden, Briar, Cora, Damon and Evan. The passage was too narrow for a crowd, so they went down one at a time, each for a single survey session, all through the day: first at dawn, then at midmorning, at noon, in the afternoon, and last of all at dusk. In the field log they numbered the sessions one to five in that order. Before going down, each of them took one instrument from the kit by the entrance and one trail snack from the pack, and no two took the same. By evening the field log was a muddle of scribbled notes. Can you sort out who went down when, and what each of them carried?

Clues

1. Evan went down later in the day than Cora.
2. Of Cora, Damon and Evan, it was Damon whose session came latest.
3. With the sessions numbered one to five through the day, Alden's and Briar's session numbers added together came to exactly five more than Cora's.
4. Alden's session fell somewhere between Cora's and Briar's.
5. One of Alden and Briar carried the compass, and the other carried the rangefinder.
6. The chalk went to one of Cora and Damon, and the measuring tape went to the other.
7. Alden packed the apricot and Cora packed the dried apple, or it was the other way round.
8. Damon and Evan packed the sesame bar and the walnut, one each.
9. Between Cora and Damon, one marked the walls with the chalk and the other brought the sesame bar.
10. Between Alden and Cora, one found the way with the compass and the other packed the dried apple.

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