PCS 5.10 Solution

"Well, it's not like we can go back and ask that hiker for the owner's manual"

Yesterday saw the PCS regular season end the way so many have ended before it. With Ubragg marching to victory!

To solve the puzzle, you first had to identify the places the bears visited. Once you had that, you had to somehow translate that into a coherent result. Based on the fact that the locations given were often mountains or ballparks known for their altitude (as well as the hints), you might have inferred that the elevations of each location was important.

1. Machu Picchu, Peru (8,040 ft.)
2. Isotopes Park, Albuquerque, NM (5,300 ft.)
3. Mt. Elbrus, Russia (18,510 ft.)
4. Mauna Kea Observatory, HI (13,796 ft)
5. Mt. Olympus, Greece (9,570 ft.)
6. Denali, AK (20,327 ft.)
7. Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, CA (1,134 ft.)
8. Zocalo, Mexico City, Mexico (7,350 ft.)
9. Coors Field, Denver, CO (5,280 ft.)

If you replace the 1000-foot measurements with the corresponding letter (A=1, B=2, etc.), these elevations translate to HERMITAGE, which means our bears are on their way to St. Petersburg!

Congratulations to Ubragg, Todd Etter, and Golem for correct solutions. Final regular season standings, prize announcements, and further information on the grand finale to come soon. Which reminds me that I still have a backlog of previous prizes to ship...