Eh, HDR is boring when used in the completely wrong way. This is WAY overdone and is it more about the gravity of how large the mountain is or is it more about the dramatic clouds?
The 2nd of the images is better, I like the crop a lot but still needs a bit of work. Be careful from going from one extreme to the other in terms of your post processing. Don't overdo your exposures trying to compensate for the sun overpowering your skies etc. I can tell how you did this from the halo on the separation from the right to the sky on the right side. Looks like a loose edit with the magic wand tool and no feathering.
Remember in grade school when they(forget which teachers) would tell you the KISS rule? Keep It Simple Stupid. 
not calling you stupid, just something I tell myself when I feel I get out of control with different techniques, whether it be for skin softening, bringing back skies or digitally melting a photograph together.
Here's an example of one "HDR" I attempted a while back when I was on vacation.
It's still not what I'd like it to be, but with tree cover it gets a bit complicated and for something I'm not paid for I say w/e. You can tell the exposure difference from the palm fronds in the top left and the tree cover. It's about a 2 stop different between the correctly exposed tropical foliage and the sky. It's also about another 2 stop diff between the foliage and the foreground with the water. In your camera you can setup bracket shooting and it takes 3-5 shots for you depending on your camera.
HDR mean's(as you probably know) High Dynamic Range. Our camera's only see about 12 stops from bright to dark, our eyes however see more. The technique in my mind is to accurately stitch together multiple exposures(for myself, 3 is normal). Put your camera on a tripod, hit the clouds, the midtones, and your shadows. From there stitch them together in a believable scene.
If you are trying to get into more digital manipulation I would suggest you purchase a bamboo tablet from Wacom. They're very cheap and I purchased a Bamboo to start with and will NEVER go back to editing with a mouse to edit my manipulations. As I arrive home today I will post up more images of my digital manipulations for you to see better how this bamboo can help you.
Hope this helps!!
