Cold weather gear gives the wearer a +5 bonus to checks to avoid the penalties with cold weather.
To be fully "protected" you would need the Endure Elements spell or something that gives you cold resistance and/or protection from cold, because all nonleathal/leathal damage from cold weather is treated as cold damage.
And like Lamontius pointed out, you can keep making checks hourly (like normal) than every ten minutes while using cold weather gear.
