POCATELLO — Barry Hulet used a word that might surprise many people to describe his experience last month with taking a group of Scouts on a campout in negative 13-degree weather: fun.

When it comes to camping, Hulet, 59, has always maintained a glass-is-half-full mindset — even on outings in which anything filling his glass would undoubtedly be frozen solid.

For 13 consecutive years, Hulet has gone camping during every single month of the year. On most outings, he’s also led a group of Scouts, helping them to reap the rewards of overcoming adversity.

“I think the biggest thing is knowing that you can do hard things that other people don’t want to do and knowing that you can survive in adverse conditions — that you have the skill to survive and flourish,” Hulet said.

Hulet was raised on a farm, where he hunted, fished and camped often. For the past 33 years, he’s continued camping often with his wife, Marjanna. He’s also been a Scout leader for several years.

He was the leader of a Boy Scout troop affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he started his camping streak 13 years ago. He told his troop members if they wanted to earn a badge either for camping every month of the year or at least 10 months of the year he would be willing to take them. Several Scouts were up to the challenge.

For outings in December or January, they often camped inside Lariat Cave in Aberdeen. The temperature stays around 45 degrees inside the cave year round, which feels balmy during the coldest days of winter, Hulet said. Other spots in which they regularly camped included the Mink Creek Area near Pocatello, a farm in Lava Hot Springs, the wilderness near Stanley and the base of Mount Borah.

“Preparation is the biggest key and the Boy Scout motto is, ‘Be prepared.’ We’d always make sure they had sufficient clothes, sufficient bedding and tarps,” Hulet said.

To provide lodging for some of the winter outings, he and his Scouts would make snow-block igloos, sometimes using tarps as ceilings. He’s learned several tricks to keep himself and the kids warm. Keeping a hot thermos inside of a sleeping bag is effective. Perhaps the best advice for staying warm on a cold night of camping, Hulet said, is to put on a pair of dry socks before going to bed.

For the first 10 years of the camping streak, Hulet’s son Cedar joined him on every outing.

More recently, Hulet had to camp alone for a few months to keep the streak alive.

“There is a little sense of pride in being able to tell people you’ve camped every month of the year for 13 year, even among the Scouting community,” Hulet said.

After the LDS church got out of Boy Scouts, the Hulets organized a Venturing Crew, which is for Scouts between 14 and 21 years old. They turned their Venturing Crew over to another leader around the time that Boy Scouts of America — now called Scouts BSA — opened to girls. For the past two and a half years, Hulet has led the girls’ troop with Scouts BSA affiliated with the Pocatello Community Charter School.

In December, Hulet led a group of Scouts from his Charter School troop on a campout behind the school. It got so cold that a couple of Scouts had to be let inside of the school’s gymnasium to warm up before returning to their tents.

The next month, he took the group camping in Rigby, where the North Star District Winteree was hosted. Hulet and nine girls — including the girls who got too cold while camping outside of PCCS — stayed comfortable, though the temperature dropped down to well below zero.

“I’ll be doing this as long as I’m able — as long as I have Scouts that want to camp year round and I’m physically able to do it,” Hulet said.