Let me start, by saying that I honestly like the design. It seems refreshingly original for a fantasy setting. My favourite part are the coarsely grown bits on the hips, neck and the arms above the fur.
The pipe is an interesting item. While he appears very crude and dangerous the pipe is a strong contrast adding some calmness to him. Kind of hard to explain properly. It fits so well into the picture, because you wouldn't expect it to fit so well to the character... does that make sense?
The sketches below remind me a lot of Hyptosis' art which is, talking about character design, definitely a good sign.
The warm highlights from the left look great and they serve as good subtle hints towards them living underground, especially in combination with the pickaxe. Of course we know it from the description, but I instantly thought about dwarves when I first saw the creature, so maybe I would have gotten it on my own. Who knows? :P
I got to say, he's probably a little too scantilly clad for such a cold area. Of course there seems to be some sort of warm lightsource on the left, but the image overall appears very cold still. The shaman in comparison wears a lof of clothes.
I am not a big fan of the upper part of the background, therefore the snow and rock rock. Nice job making the pickaxe handle and head convincingly look like wood and metal.
The different items are very well designed and definitely look like they belong together.
Again, I am not even touching the subject of your technical skill. You know way better than I how professional you skill level is. Moreso, you probably keep demanding more of yourself, while I am already stunned.
Great work, as usual.