Lost in the Dust — Daily puzzle for 2026-11-01

Very Hard — logic-grid deduction puzzle

A Martian dust storm scattered the logs of four survey crews, and base has to piece them back together.

Nolan, Opal, Selene and Vaughn were out mapping the slopes beyond the Mars base when a wall of red dust rolled in. Each of them led a small crew, and each crew was working at its own height on the mountainside. Each crew was also carrying its own weight of gear. The sky went dark and static filled their headsets, so every crew had to reach base its own way. All four crews made it home safe, but their logs came back in scraps. Help base put the pieces together before the record is lost for good.

Clues

1. Either Nolan's crew used the signal lamp or Selene's crew used the rope signal, but not both.
2. The crew on the suit radio worked at a height between those of the signal lamp crew and the rope signal crew.
3. The crew carrying 6 kg worked at the next elevation up or down from the homing beacon crew.
4. Nolan worked lower down the slope than the crew carrying 12 kg.
5. The homing beacon crew and the crew hauling 8 kg worked at neighbouring elevations, with no other crew in between.
6. Added together, the elevations of Opal's crew and the homing beacon crew came to 3000 metres.
7. Vaughn's elevation and the elevation of the crew carrying 6 kg made 3200 metres between them, with the same height counted twice if Vaughn's crew was the one carrying that load.

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