Just last weekend 50 teams of Northeastern students chose to forgo both their studies and sleep for a 24 hour period in order to compete in the university wide Husky Hunt. An annual event put on by the Resident Student Association (RSA), Husky Hunt involves a series of riddles, crafts and clues that send participants all over the greater Boston area.
The event has become increasingly more popular throughout the years, with hundreds of teams wanting to participate. Because of this, RSA now administers a test before the actual hunt, and only those with the best scores are entered into the competition.
This year, the theme was Hunt of the Living Dead, and had everything to do with zombies. After the 50 teams were selected and hyped up on caffeine, the hunt started at 7pm on November 7th. There was a story line to guide each and every clue, giving participants a ‘cadet’ role and task of stopping a zombie outbreak in Boston.
Some of the tasks this year included visiting locations such as The Museum of Science or a restaurant in the North End, and taking group pictures while saluting. There was also the Graveyard Crawl where teams had to visit an array of graveyards and a midnight game of capture the flag in Copley Square.
Just by looking at those few locations, it becomes fairly obvious that a great deal of ground is covered during very involved event. One participant, Xander Miller walked 38 miles and cycled 30, burning around 8000 calories, all on only 30 minutes of sleep. Some impressive statistics to say the least.
The all out race ended at City Hall, with the presentation of the ‘cure’, after a rather involved final clue. The last task on its own required teams to play “Red Light, Dead Light”, decipher Morse Code and travel to three different locations, collecting the three parts of ‘the cure.’
The results of this all out experience will be announced on the Husky Hunt Boat Cruise in December, where the winners will receive some impressive prizes. In the past, the first place team has won GoPros and Kindle Fires. This event is clearly in a league of its own and it widely celebrated in both the Northeastern community as well as on a national basis. In 2007, Husky Hunt won Program of the Year both regionally and nationally among various RSA organizations across the country.
Husky Hunt is definitely an event that requires commitment, but Miller still had the time of his life, describing the event as “sleep deprived, insane but then so much fun.”