So winter isn't really THAT bad. I mean, just be smart and don't wander far away with no way of making fire and have food readily available. The big thing you have to watch out for is Deerclops which you can escape once you hear his moaning. The Walrus hunting party is pretty easy to get away from. There is one camp right near a tall bird nest so I usually end up drawing them there and the end up getting killed without any intervention from me. Or even better, Deerclops will do it for me so that when I wander around in the winter, I just see dead things everywhere from Deerclops.