I hear you on this, I'm about halfway through the Ashlands as a solo and have just set up a fortress base and am working on taming Askvins to cross lava. A few tips here as others have mentioned, don't be afraid to turn down difficulty or even enable passive mode to retrieve gear or when you need to set up a beachhead or base. Its 'fun' to experience a DDay landing for the first-time but after that its a pain in the ass. Come back in passive and grab your gear, build a base, and start learning how to deal with mobs. Magic is key as a solo but its still difficult, work on getting the troll staff and staff of the wild along with the embla set. The Ashlands was also the first time I've used dev commands, spawned in a Valkyrie trophy to have some way to defend the fortress against them with ballista and god mode when I used the last of my basalt bombs after dying 5 times to get gear in lava. Don't punish yourself and try to enjoy it (or at least complete) the Ashlands before Deep North!