The trick to this crossword is that some of the answers need to cross into the black zones! Examples include 7 Down, the starting numbe of which isn't even marked as it's located in the black zone.
The letters in the black zones (ordered by row) spell CRYOSURGERY.
Author's notes
Author: Dan
Ah yes, the crossword — could it be an MDSC Puzzle Hunt without a crossword? In the past, we have found the crosswords tend to be well-received and this year’s crossword is a callback to the crossword that we published in our first ever edition of MDSC Puzzle Hunt way back in 2021 (you can check it out in the Archives section on our website!)
I accept that this year’s edition was not the cleanest set crossword — I initially attempted to set the hidden letters so that they would make sense going across and down (see “C”, “R”, and “Y”) but quickly abandoned this after realising how constraining this would make my grid.
With these crosswords, I often find myself putting in hours of effort (I think this one took somewhere between 4-6 hours to set from scratch) and I find it somewhat funny (not to mention, impressive) that solvers can complete a grid within 30 minutes.
