The Hard Way Home

Lieutenant Commander Honor Harrington, executive officer of the cruiser HMS Broadsword, is running evaluation exercises on a new type of pinnace when an avalanche buries a holiday resort on the planet Gryphon, killing hundreds and trapping many more under meters of snow. With proper rescue equipment hours away, Honor has to decide how far to push an untested spacecraft and an exhausted crew to reach survivors before the cold finishes what the avalanche started. It's an early look at the resourcefulness that defines her later career.