Scaling The Rim by Dorothy Grant

In the future, on a wintry planet where terraforming has been stalled, Annika is a tech on a mission to install a weather station near the Rim. She and the other Federaliski (tech and scientists) are sent to the local Rus.

Features avalanches, her ability to speak with them, bitter conflict, politics, weather and storms, digging latrines, and more.