I had an epic adventure scaling the Garudo mountains. I went through almost a page of frost resistance food before I ran out and had to make an exit, leaving the last peak behind.

The snow rock monsters are possible to defeat, I had one down to a sliver of health before he got his one shot kill in grr. Perhaps for the better as it took all 27 of my fire arrows, broke my bow, used more normal arrows and over half an hour of carefully positioning around an outcrop waiting for the right moment to get 1 arrow off at a time. I have nothing to withstand his cold attacks and touching him with a weapon is instant death. This game is harder then Dark Souls, I certainly die a lot more. (Still in starter gear with 3 hearts though, should really find a town or something)

I found a shrine with a minor test of strength, epic fight lol. Luckily there were pillars to give some protection. Found some really tall enemies which seem to be the cause of some slowdown. Each time I take one on the game starts struggling really hard, extreme slowdown to severe freezes while fighting. The game did crash on me once last night yet that was somewhere else. Error code, please restart console :/

Saw a Centaur with a tripple shot bow and a bunch of magic attacks. I was running out of frost resistance food so no time for a long battle with that. It killed me 1 shot anyway as almost everything else up there. Plenty of treasure chests lying around there and some treasure imps or whatever you call them. Worth exploring up there.

Then finally I ran into a shrine with a major test of strength. That was the biggest adrenaline rush since Everquest. 1 hit deaths as usual yet with my lvl 45 shield it 'only' took 2.75 hearts if only hit once, so by cancelling my 45 dmg 2-hander directly after a hit to get the shield back up I could sorta survive. As long as avoiding all the laser and spinning attacks. (Very fast mad robot)
It still broke both my good shields (none left after that to make it even harder), broke 3 weapons, broke my high level bow, used up all my saved up shock arrows (20) and another 20 normal arrows. But I survived! It dropped a dmg 60 Guardian sword++ and equivalent high level shield and spear. Now hopefully it won't break after 3 fights :/ Amazing fight.

Then I had to run off the mountain, no more cold resistance food, food stock running low, too cold up there to survive. Btw I have a bunch of orbs from completing shrines, how do you get more hearts etc? I'm playing without using fast travel so I hope I don't have to go back to the great plateau as I wouldn't know how...

Ok, got my sword, no more frost resistance, now what...

It is very cool how you are playing the game without fast travel. I like how fast travel is handled in this game (you are still forced to walk to most places.) But I could only imagine how much fun it is to play it without fast travel. Unfortunately I can't resist it while it is there. 

Anyway, to get heart and stamina increases, you pray at goddess statues. They are located in most - if not all towns - as well as the temple of time in the Great Plateau. I don't think you can get back to the plateau without fast travelling, but I might be wrong. 

I had an epic adventure scaling the Garudo mountains. I went through almost a page of frost resistance food before I ran out and had to make an exit, leaving the last peak behind.

The snow rock monsters are possible to defeat, I had one down to a sliver of health before he got his one shot kill in grr. Perhaps for the better as it took all 27 of my fire arrows, broke my bow, used more normal arrows and over half an hour of carefully positioning around an outcrop waiting for the right moment to get 1 arrow off at a time. I have nothing to withstand his cold attacks and touching him with a weapon is instant death. This game is harder then Dark Souls, I certainly die a lot more. (Still in starter gear with 3 hearts though, should really find a town or something)

I found a shrine with a minor test of strength, epic fight lol. Luckily there were pillars to give some protection. Found some really tall enemies which seem to be the cause of some slowdown. Each time I take one on the game starts struggling really hard, extreme slowdown to severe freezes while fighting. The game did crash on me once last night yet that was somewhere else. Error code, please restart console :/

Saw a Centaur with a tripple shot bow and a bunch of magic attacks. I was running out of frost resistance food so no time for a long battle with that. It killed me 1 shot anyway as almost everything else up there. Plenty of treasure chests lying around there and some treasure imps or whatever you call them. Worth exploring up there.

Then finally I ran into a shrine with a major test of strength. That was the biggest adrenaline rush since Everquest. 1 hit deaths as usual yet with my lvl 45 shield it 'only' took 2.75 hearts if only hit once, so by cancelling my 45 dmg 2-hander directly after a hit to get the shield back up I could sorta survive. As long as avoiding all the laser and spinning attacks. (Very fast mad robot)
It still broke both my good shields (none left after that to make it even harder), broke 3 weapons, broke my high level bow, used up all my saved up shock arrows (20) and another 20 normal arrows. But I survived! It dropped a dmg 60 Guardian sword++ and equivalent high level shield and spear. Now hopefully it won't break after 3 fights :/ Amazing fight.

Then I had to run off the mountain, no more cold resistance food, food stock running low, too cold up there to survive. Btw I have a bunch of orbs from completing shrines, how do you get more hearts etc? I'm playing without using fast travel so I hope I don't have to go back to the great plateau as I wouldn't know how...

Ok, got my sword, no more frost resistance, now what...