December 5, 2009, Longspur Peak, BC

Longspur Peak juts out of the Pemberton Ice Cap and tops out at approx. 8500'. Stacy and I started out on an icy, bumpy, dangerous, sled track and got worked over in the process. When we finally made it to the alpine the day was half over. There are many, many open crevasses this early in the season even with the big snows that the region has had...In fact, just last week, a woman drove her sled into one, broke her nose and got a concussion. So, we clipped along at a modest 20-40 mph to the base of Longspur Peak. Just being out there, in that expanse, makes you feel very small. This, combined with bone chilling cold and high, gusty winds just adds to that feeling. We skinned up in a mixture of bubble ice, rime, knee high sastrugi, windboard, chickenheads and waist deep powder. Given such a late hour so far from Kansas, we forwent the rock rimed summit a mere 50 meters elevation away. Winds were gusting an estimated 50 MPH and temps. were in the single digits. The snow plumes trailing off of surrounding peaks were surreal. The ski down was everything to be expected of a high alpine peak in winter, with no new snow and howling winds. However, we did find some pockets of wind packed powder and those turns made it as good as the Brown Shugga' (American Strong Ale 9.85%) we enjoyed ...http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/2264/