Don’t let the weather stop you from starting 2018 on the best note with geocaching! This year, we’re raising the stakes: find a cache or attend an event on December 31 and January 1 to earn the Last Cache of 2017 and First Cache of 2018 souvenirs. We’ve compiled a list of suggestions to help you up your find count and expand your souvenir inventory, no matter the season.

Hot weather

• Bring plenty of water. Geocaching can be hard work, so stay hydrated for the day. What you thought would be an easy find could take much longer than anticipated.
• Go for some paddle caches. Hot weather is the perfect time to complete your Fizzy Grid and find caches near the water. Grab or rent a canoe, kayak, boat, or inner tube and just keep swimming.
• Hide your own cache. Walk around your neighborhood, scope out places that could use a geocache, then head inside and start planning!

Cold weather

• Bring hand warmers. Looking inside tree stumps, under benches, and everywhere in between can mean some time without gloves on. Bring hand warmers along and stay warm and ready for the next cache.
• Have a warm beverage on hand. Make sure you have a thermos to keep your drink nice and toasty!
• Solve Mystery Caches. If the temperature is in the negatives, it might be too cold to search for caches outside. Instead, sit by the fireplace and solve some tough Mystery Caches. You’ll have a whole new set of caches to find when the weather warms up.

Snowy weather

• Bring adequate TOTT (Tools of the Trade). Pens can freeze in extremely cold weather, so bring a pencil to assure that you can sign the log and earn your smiley. Shovels may also come in handy in case you need to clear snow from the ground to expand your search.
• Get creative with your transportation. Strap on snowshoes, cross country skis, or borrow a snowmobile and travel from geocache to geocache in style. If you’re a Premium Member, run a Pocket Query for geocaching attributes. There are attributes for caches available during winter, accessible by snowmobile, and more!
• Make a geocaching Bucket List. If the snow is piling up outside, stay inside and plan your next geocaching outing. Search the map for your dream geocaches—maybe they’re in a great location, have a rare D/T ratio, require special tools, or are amazingly creative hides. Compile them into a List so you can find them when the snow melts.

Rainy weather

• Bring extra logbooks. No one likes a wet, mushy logbook. If you come across any, add a new, dry logbook to the cache. Future cachers (and the cache owner) will thank you!
• Have an umbrella handy. Protect yourself from the rain while you’re searching for the cache, and protect the logbook from water while you’re signing it.
• Wear rain boots. You never know where the coordinates could lead you, so wear proper footwear in case you need to walk along a muddy path to get to the cache!

Extreme weather shouldn’t stop you from adding more smileys to your map. This year, earn two new souvenirs by finding a cache or attending an event on December 31 and January 1!

What are your extreme weather caching suggestions? Let us know in the comments below!