I love difficult modpacks, and Permafrost certainly delivers with this concept. The recent updates change the environment so that you spawn in a neverending "whiteout" situation with visibility limited to a great degree. I recommend that you set up the world and have it spawn a chest at starting... not that you'll actually be able to recover that chest every single time (or even half the time) but it does give you a small edge.
TIPS: Do hunt down the glowing mushrooms in the caves. They can be made into soup (thankfully because you'll be short on food in the early game) - two different kinds of mushrooms and a bowl is all you need. And don't neglect the Botania branch of the quest book. One of the early flowers you make (Bellethorne) is a perfect mob-killer. Set up two of them near your home, feed them with a mana pool, and those horrible tiny zombies will drop dead before you do.
Trees WILL grow in the storm. Plant them near your base, stick a candle next to them, and voila! Tree after a bit. This saves you from the pain of trying to grow them underground.
The first thing you should craft when you get iron is shears. You will want to cut and plant cave roots since they are one of the few sources of food early on. Also, check the trees along the river banks - mulberries are food!
Doors keep out SOME mobs - but not all. Gates are safer.
Crops will grow if you put glass two blocks above them.
I turn on cheats so I can use the /locate command. A lot of times it works very badly ("locate mineshaft" can produce some odd results in Permafrost. /locate village works just fine.
I get lost easily in the whiteout conditions -- my solution is to tunnel somewhere and pop up, like Bugs Bunny taking a wrong turn. Most of my wrong turns involve mobs landing on my head.
The caves are huge, and some are very lovely. I adore the glowing crystal caves and the big mossy caves - if you can find one of these, it has a lot of resources. Also be on the lookout for smoke in the mines; this leads to a campfire (and mobs) with some chests (and sometimes a Mimic) and a few useful things.
The Wandering Trader may come wandering by. He's invisible and he won't trade with you but you can steal his llamas with a leash.
The more survivable areas are those close to a village and those close to a forest with mushrooms. Sugar cane (for making paper, which you WILL need) is difficult to find, particularly with every mob within 60 blocks (or so it seems) hunting you.
This one's a favorite. Some big disadvantages (resource poor) but you spawn near a big roadway. Underneath it's not snowing and you don't get cold. Great for building the Fortress of Survivability. -1736735879090148283
Here's a world where you spawn reasonably close to a small village: -8002173506394758459
