By Matt Collette

The second annual Husky Hunt began just before 8 p.m. Friday as students from 50 scavenger hunt teams ran from a captain’s meeting to Krentzman Quad to gather as a group and strategize their plan of action.

Despite inclement weather, the hunt sent 600 students around Boston and the surrounding area to solve riddles, locate landmarks and photograph their discoveries. The Husky Hunt ran for 24 hours, and ended in the Curry Student Cente Saturday night.

“I don’t think any team will be able to finish it,” said Cat Armato, Resident Student Association’s (RSA) vice president for programming. “It’s supposed to be so no one can get it.”

The Husky Hunt’s registration filled quickly, Armato said. Registration opened at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 4 and spaces filled in less than two minutes.

The teams received a five-page list of clues and attempted to tackle as much of it as they could. Clues like “Malcolm X was a waiter here” and “Oldest Irish pub in Boston” led teams to various parts of Boston.

The teams received a two-page supplement with additional clues at the midpoint of the scavenger hunt.

In addition to clues, teams were given challenges, like a spelling test, a race and a challenge to find a student dressed as Waldo.

More than half of the event happened in pouring, near-hurricane like conditions. Rain began to fall at about 7:25 a.m. Saturday, and continued for the remainder of the hunt. Participants said the rain significantly affected their performance. The rain and wind were part of the remnants of Hurricane Noel, which hit Cape Cod the hardest as it passed through Massachusetts.

“The Hunt was exhausting, No. 1; wet, No. 2; and it was cold, oh my God, so cold,” said Megan Vick, a freshman music industry major and member of the Husky Hussulahs team.

Several team members said the weather made running around the city even more difficult and perilous.

“The rain affected us ridiculously. It was annoying, cold and irritable. Half of us got injured in the process. It definitely affected our performance in the long run,” said Shephali Godbole, a middler business major and member of the Soulja Boy team.

Luis Escobar, a freshman business management major and member of Team 3.5, agreed that the weather played a big role in the hunt. He said the hardest part of the hunt was Saturday morning, when most participants had already been awake for 24 hours.

His team started to lose energy at 3 a.m., and struggled to regain momentum as the rain fell. Despite the rain, Escobar estimated that his team was active for 20 of the hunt’s 24 hours.

“The weather started getting to a lot of members. It sort of demoralized us for a bit,” Escobar said. “It was pretty bad. It made us not want to go out and take pictures. The conditions were just terrible.”

Though the weather added to the already strenuous Husky Hunt, every team finished, and 48 of the teams had all participants finish. Pearl Rimon, a freshman criminal justice major and member of The Spooners, said her team considered giving up at one point.

“Once we found out there was no prize for giving up, we were like ‘screw it’ and kept on going,” Rimon said.

Teams dealt with rain, rather than finishing the competition early.

Rocky Slaughter, a sophomore political science major and member of First Place Team, stayed out of the rain at his team’s West Village C homebase.

“It sucked, but it wasn’t unbearable,” he said. “Sleep was a big thing. If you got it, that was awesome. Food was the same. If you got it, awesome.”

Christina Bonka, a sophmore physical therapy major and member of The Entourage, said her team wasn’t “emotionally prepared” for the rain.

“The rain just slowed us down,” said Jasmine Choi, a freshmen pharmacy major on Team Deathcup. “We didn’t use the bikes, because we didn’t think it would be safe.”

Armato said myBike was supposed to provide RSA with 125 bikes, though a week before the Husky Hunt they said only 65 bikes were available (another 60 electric bicycles were available). She said myBike was going to charge them the same amount of money for the 65 bikes as they would for the agreed-upon 125 bikes.

“We had to kind of just scrounge up bikes at the last minute,” Armato said. RSA hoped to get enough bikes for each team to get three, but wound up with enough for only 30 teams.

Armato repeatedly reminded teams to use their bikes safely, especially in the stormy conditions. About halfway through the hunt, Armato said RSA thought about how the bikes they provided didn’t have lights, though she said the myBike bicycles would have been equipped with lights.

“We kept saying, ‘If you’re riding bikes you have to be careful, you have to ride with a helmet,'” she said.

To make sure teams were safe, Armato said Northeastern’s Risk Managment office approved the scavenger hunt list. Every photo required at least three people in each shot so no one would ever be alone. RSA also avoided sending students to areas where they were likely to be in danger, although they did send groups of four to The Fenway at 6 a.m.

“We didn’t go to Roxbury, we didn’t go to any sketchy areas,” Armato said.

Teams gathered at the Curry Student Center at 8 p.m. Saturday to return items to RSA. Each team was then called individually into the Curry Student Center Ballroom for a group photograph. They were then permitted to return home.

“I don’t think I’ve ever tried so hard on anything before,” Choi said.