Cycle of Learning - Cryptic Cryptids - Card 1

 It's been a while, but my partner and I finally had the collective brainpower (hopefully!) go back to puzzling and tacking the last batch of puzzles from Enigma Emporium's Season Two: Cycle of Learning. This batch is called 'Cryptic Cryptids'. Cue the X-files theme, or maybe Grimm? 

On the front is a series of 4 peaks, with the names and dates of who presumably summited them, under a quote from Sir Edmond Hillary, over the message 'HELLO'. On the back, we have a typed message with a series of interspersed numbers that clearly mean something. The note is from Scarlett Long, telling a certain Elric Sanderson that they need to pay their rent. It was sent February 4, 2020. From the message, there are arrows going to a mouth - phone number? speak out loud? - and then to a series of what could be hex on a black box stamp on a book, then to the Eiffel Tower, then to a pen. A website is at the bottom. 

I start with the names/dates to identify the peaks, Google is helpful:

• David Harrah and James Maxwell, 1950 - Yerupaja
• Charles Barrington, 1858 - Eiger
• Jack Buchsteiner, 1819 - Torstein
• Yevginy Abalakov, 1933 - Ismoil Somoni Peak

So, we hunt the YETI (of course, the snowy peaks should have given that away already).

While I was doing that, my partner was trying to work with the hex on the black stamp. A straight conversion doesn't make sense, which means we probably have to follow the arrows, starting with the message text itself.

The numbers in the message are 2-7-9-4-0. deux-sept-neuf-quatre-zero? Nothing to my ear when pronounced properly... the Eiffel tower makes me think of France, 27940 is Les Trois Lacs (the three lakes) region of France? 

Then we look at the website. It's the Infiniti Institute/pmats (stamp backwards). So, what is the stamp when read backwards? If you run the hex through backwards, starting at the end, you get cryptozoology. That leads us to a page that actually exists. It is the staff directory for the Cryptozoology department, which does include one Scarlett Long, based in Paris, Texas. From her profile we have matches for the Eiffel Tower, and pen (Penn State). There is no reference to Elric Sanderson. A quick search of the internet reveals only one Elric Sanderson on facebook, and his only information is a photo of a pretty cat. 

We're stuck. We know Scarlett is looking for Yeti's as part of the Infiniti Institutes Cryptozoology department. We're not even sure what information we're still looking for. To the hints! The first tells us to get comfortable with how the page works?! All I notice is that when I click any text it brings me to the top of the page. It's all hypertext. Hmf. Then, OMG. Hovering over the word 'mouth' in Dartmouth reveals a DIFFERENT link. Following mouth-->books-->Paris-->Pen we get an Expedition log! Or, more accurately, a chance to figure out what we're missing.

Turns out, we need the mountain she found the Yeti on. A quick Google of mountains 27940 reveals that Mount Lhotse in Tibet is that height, and a reasonable place to find the Yeti. That gets us another message, and a beginning place for the next card... for another night. Thank you Enigma Emporium for another fun evening!