GM Question: Snows of Summer

[Squirrel King]

So, I have an interesting conundrum in my RoW game. The players are just starting out and one of them is playing an oracle with the winter mystery. At first level he took the Child of Winter revelation, meaning he can ignore light snow for movement and leaves no tracks.

So here's my question to you folks:

To Legolas or Not to Legolas:

So at encounter "B" with the half-buried trapped chest, the winter oracle is about to inspect the chest. Now it says in the book that the trigger is under the snow. But if the oracle player specifically states that he is using the Child of Winter ability to leave no tracks, that seems to imply he is atop the snow (a la Legolas, hence the spoiler title). Which means the trap doesn't spring.

He's failed his Perception check to see it, so my thoughts are that he opens the chest, finds it empty. And then figures he will just have the rest of the party approach and continue down the trail.

At which point one of them will actually trigger the trap. Would you rule that I am correct here? Or would you have had the oracle trigger the spiked log trap, despite being atop the snow? I'm curious to see what you folks think.

Thanks for your input! I'm curious to see what the masses here have to say.

-SK

[Luna eladrin]

spoiler:

I think that as long as he just walks there, nothing is the matter, but that he triggers the trap when he opens the chest. As the chest is half under the snow and the trigger is under the snow as well, he cannot open the chest without removing the snow first and probably even (accidentally) shifting the chest.