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The story of the book was taking place in a frozen planet where humans/ people essentially lived as nomads and there was a massive ?frozen? wall that a group had to traverse or follow.
Food was scarce and they were constantly cold and had very little shelter.
The book was published at least 12 years ago.
It's a science fiction setting (not a fantasy one), but I can't recall any details regarding technology or weapons.
This might be the fourth book from Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos series, titled The Making of the Representative for Planet 8. In this book, a benevolent galactic hegemony directs the social and technological development of the civilization on "Planet 8", but due to circumstances that were left fairly vague in the narrative, the climate of the planet was permanently altered to begin a long freeze. During this time the citizens of Planet 8 were directed to build and maintain a wall along a particular parallel to shield the equatorial zone from arctic ice. The ending chapters of the narrative entailed circumnavigating the world by traversing the wall. Ecosystems were hard hit, and therefore food and shelter were scarce.
As I recall, Lessing wrote the story to address some of the spirituality, psychology, and what she felt was heroism of Scott's (real world) Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole.
Alastair Renold's "Absolution Gap" seems to be a fair match to the description. General thrust: There's an ice world with an orbiting artifact that sometimes opens up, apparently as a channel to an alternate reality or a different time in this one (details are a bit confusing). Someone wants to watch the artifact at all times so they don't miss any openings. This eventually leads to a whole sub-society on the planet consisting of a travelling caravan, constantly moving against the planet's rotation, effectively holding a fixed position relative to the artifact. The main (building/vehicle) of the caravan contains a support system for the watcher - it feeds/cleans/evacuates him constantly, holds open his eyelids and waters his eyes, keeps him sane without sleeping, and maintains a system of mirrors, all so he can watch the artifact continuously.
