Midway through his mission to sleep outside for a whole year, Minnesota teen Rudy Hummel is facing his biggest obstacle yet: temperatures colder than -20 degrees.
“(I’m doing it) just to be able to tell myself that I did it at the end, to tell myself that I went a year without sleeping inside at night,” the aspiring Eagle Scout told KARE.
Rudy began the challenge last June. At the time, his goal was to last through the summer.
“I thought it would be cool to spend the whole summer sleeping outside,” Rudy, 17, told Minnesota’s Star Tribune in December, adding he extended the challenge in September because he wanted “something more fun.”
As the inevitable Minnesota snow began piling up, Rudy fashioned an igloo of sorts. (Technically, Rudy says it’s a “quinsy.”) When temperatures dropped to -23 on Sunday night, Rudy’s ice walls kept the inside a warm 7 degrees. During that night, the teen slept well with “five to seven shirts,” multiple pairs of socks, foam pads, blankets, sleeping bags and a jug of warm water.
Meanwhile, his parents slept inside — but only with their son’s guarantee he would come in if the cold became too unbearable.
