Talk about vertigo You've been dropped at the edge of a cliff, ...

[misspop]

Talk about vertigo You've been dropped at the edge of a cliff, looking down for what seems to be miles There's only one way to go from here: up But it's going to be quite a climb, requiring all of the mountaineering skills you've ever heard of.
 
  The atmosphere here is very thin even at the mean surface level of this place; at altitude you'll never get a lungful. No matter, though; you could not breathe this atmosphere anyway, since it contains no oxygen; it's mostly carbon dioxide. You climb and climb; this mountain must be three times the height of Everest, and much broader at its base There are clouds around you, and you can find water ice as well. When you try to melt it, however, it does not turn to liquid (it vaporizes to gas). Oh well, just keep climbing. But what will you do when you get to the top?

Question 2

You are walking around on a solid surface; the surface gravity is comfortable, but it is hot as hell. It feels as if your eyeballs are being squeezed, and your insides are queasy (due to the high pressurealmost like being deep in the ocean).
 
  Your life-support belt is corroding. The Sun, barely visible through the haze, is near your meridian; you hope for nightfall (unaware that it would provide no substantial relief), but you already have been stuck on this planet for 72 hours, and the Sun seems not to have moved through the sky (and, if it moved at all, it moved eastward from the meridian).

[kusterl]

Answer to Question 1

You are on Olympus Mons of Mars, the largest mountain in the solar system.

Answer to Question 2

You are on Venus, of course The slow, backward motion of the Sun is the result of Venus's slow, retrograde rotation.