Winter Caching?

[+offonanadventure]

Our family is just getting started with geocaching but we have some concerns because the area we live in has lots of cold weather and snow. Being newbies to this whole process we are unsure if we will have much luck finding caches with the white stuff all over the ground. Is there anyone from southern Alberta who could let us know if we should pursue some challenges right away or if we need to wait for nicer weather.

[+Jackalgirl]

Our family is just getting started with geocaching but we have some concerns because the area we live in has lots of cold weather and snow. Being newbies to this whole process we are unsure if we will have much luck finding caches with the white stuff all over the ground. Is there anyone from southern Alberta who could let us know if we should pursue some challenges right away or if we need to wait for nicer weather.

 

Hi, and welcome!

 

I'm not from your area, so I'll have to leave the local recommendations to someone else.

 

But I wanted to say that generally speaking, whether or not you cache in winter is entirely up to you. Do you like being out in the cold & snow? Are you sufficiently prepared? It's certainly possible to geocache in the snow (and it's fun!) as long as you don't go out in sandles, shorts, with an insufficient number of batteries. ; )

 

If you've never been out in the winter before, and especially if you're contemplating caches that are off-road or fairly off the beaten path, here are some Forum threads you might find useful:

 

This thread has some recommendations not only for types of caches that can be found in winter, but also ways of finding caches, with and without having to search through several inches of snow.

 

Here's another thread, fairly long (two pages). It is fairly silly. : ) But there are some nice pictures there -- you can get some really good pictures out in the snowy wilderness, if you like taking pictures.

 

And here's a thread about a topic near and dear to geocachers: keeping one's GPSr's batteries warm.

 

The bottom line is: know your limitations and be prepared. Hopefully some other folks in your neck of the woods can come and give you specific advice for your environment.

 

Have fun, whatever you do!

[+wavector]

Our family is just getting started with geocaching but we have some concerns because the area we live in has lots of cold weather and snow. Being newbies to this whole process we are unsure if we will have much luck finding caches with the white stuff all over the ground. Is there anyone from southern Alberta who could let us know if we should pursue some challenges right away or if we need to wait for nicer weather.

 

Hello offonanadventure, that is a great geocaching handle!

There are many geocaches which are findable in the winter. You can look for the "available in winter" attribute, it isn't always used correctly but many hiders (especially in Canada) use that attribute to mark geocaches which can be found in the winter. The "available in winter" attribute is a snowflake and if you find a geocache with that attribute and a red border and bar across the snowflake it is almost a certainty that the cache is a ground hide and it will be covered with snow. The snowflake without the red border and bar usually means a cache hidden off the ground, in a stump or in a fashion that will allow a winter seeker success.

I am not sure where you are searching but if you send me a PM I can direct you to several winter friendly hides in almost any part of southern Alberta. We found a geocache today so, yes, even -25 and many feet of snow won't stop you from searching and finding geocaches. We also had a DNF and the snow and the cold prevented a good search so it can work the other way as well. I can think of several hides that would require a shovel, a lot of effort and even more luck.

The attributes are listed just under the map area on the upper right side of the cache page.

Welcome to the geocaching forums and welcome to geocaching.

[+offonanadventure]

Thanks for the response. We read through all the threads, had a good laugh in a few spots, and got some great ideas so we really appreciate your time on this matter.