The shape is based on a landscape mesh with displace modifiers. The textures used here are based on photos I took in Norway and control displacement modifiers and material shader mixing (rock-snow). Much of it is based on tutorials I've watched over the years (this one on Sardi Pax's in particular). The snow is simply a white diffuse shader with some blue subsurface scattering and could be improved with image texturing. The compositing node-setup includes DOF, which is turned down for the rendering of the preview but may come in handy (I will use it for a cinematic sequence). Hope you enjoy it.
Close enough. One of my research areas are the Himalayas and they certainly inspire in many ways :)
The texture was packed into the blend. If you use 2.8, it's possible that it is really pale due to differences in how 2.8 doesn't let you use a texture's non-colour data in the same way as 2.7.
Looks really good. Thanks for sharing it with us.