I guess that story two is the lie. If you couldn't figure out how to get down and eventually figured out how to get up--and did get up--then you would have been stuck up there. You would probably then have had to tell your companions what had happend and get help getting down. Well, unless there was a path at the top you could use to get back down. But this is my guess, anyway. By the way, your writing is so good that sometimes I'm jealous.