Bernard, I've been brooding over your first photo here for a couple of days and I have to say finally, in my opinion it is brilliant!
I work mainly on mood and feeling when I'm "assessing" whether a pic grabs me, and this one does it on all counts. Compositionally, it's beautifully balanced, diagonally with the darker sky and the light snow, and the rocks!! The top ones seem to be extruding out of the mountain, while the lower ones are hanging on to it.
I would just love to see this on a large print. Congratulations Bernard!
Bob.