I went to Nepal for the first time earlier this year, and made the trek to the foot of Mt Everest. We spent a couple of nights camping at Gorak Shep, the last peice of flatish ground before you hit the Khumbu Glaciar and Everest Base Camp. Here you are dwarfed at the bottom of a vast amphitheatre of 7000+ metre peaks. We got up at 5am to climb up to Kala Pattar, a 5,500m ridge with classic views of the western face of Everest, the Khumbu Ice Fall and the South Coll. One of my favourite images was taken just as two of my friends reached the top, with 6500m Pumori behind them.
While I also like to colour shot, I converted it to a quadtone in PS to give it that "early explorer" feel, and used a gaussian blur overlay to render the mountain behind to give slightly more prominence to the two figures on the summit. For me the two tiny people they make the viewer appreciate the scale of the place.
I also took many "straight" shots of Everest, but my favourite was actually taken late that afternoon. Back at the campsite, the sun began to set. Slowly the mountains all around us fell into shadow until Everest, standing above them all, was the only peak still illuminated by the setting sun.
This is a straight shot, just cropped a little. Sunset on Everest - my favourite photograph from 2004.
Julian