“We had to do a video of a smoked meat sandwich singing ‘My Heart Will Go On’,” said Linnea Mulholland.
This fourth year Concordia linguistics student doesn’t have a penchant for performing meat; in fact, she is a two-time champion of the Impossible Montreal scavenger hunt.
Impossible Montreal is a city-wide scavenger hunt that tests a team’s ability to create, decode, navigate, fast-talk and work together. Now in its third year, the hunt boasts 140 participants on 13 different teams; roughly double the amount of people from last year.
This year’s scavenger hunt list included points for penning a short piece of erotic fanfiction about PK Subban and Michel Therrien, building an Arcade Fire cardboard diorama, and dressing up as the cast from a brand new Wes Anderson movie.
Event organizer Vinny François is a director at Montreal Improv and has run the hunt for three years now. Impossible Montreal was inspired by the University of Chicago scavenger hunt that François researched online.
His favourite part of running the event is the crazy things teams are able to come up with: “It’s nice to see people’s hidden talents … in the videos people make, their creativity comes alive.”
According to François, the goal of Impossible Montreal is a good old-fashioned good time.
“What I hope people get out of it is that they have a good time with their friends and maybe learn something about their city,” he said.
A veteran of Impossible Montreal, Mulholland and her team, The Hunny Badgers, have first hand experience dealing with the challenges posed to hunters. Throughout the past three editions of the hunt, people have talked their way onto the ice at the Bell Centre, given hipster walking tours of Atwater Market, recreated the infamous Rob Ford crack video and pretty much gone above and beyond for scavenger hunting glory.
“The whole team gave it their all,” she said. “From passing out while giving blood to working their connections to get a photo with the mayor and an employee of the Canadian Space Agency.”
Over 43 hours, teams compete to check off as many items on the list as possible, which for most means a mad, highly caffeinated dash around the city from one location to the next.
“We had to work really hard and run on less sleep and more coffee, but with a full team of twelve we were able to get a lot done,” said Mulholland.
After being crowned scavenger hunt champions Sunday night, the Hunny Badgers are already looking forward to next year.
“We’re all really excited for next year,” she said, “because with more teams that have experience, the competition will be even more intense.”
Registration for the annual Impossible Montreal scavenger hunt is $10 per person and any proceeds from the event are donated to Doctors Without Borders.
Press photos
