One of the things that frustrates mountain creation and even small topographical features is the polygon mesh underlying the work space. If you are not prepared for that, you can quickly get frustrated with how bad things can look in micro scale. And as a result make things super sized in macro scale to get around the polygon limitations. If you import a topographical terrain map, the mesh will dictate the outcomes in ways you don't expect.
On a 5000ft plateau in my current terrain I've pulled up a 10,000ft 1mile diameter cylinder. Then to all 8 primary directions I used the bulldozer tool and a 1\2 mile brush to pull ramps out 3 miles. Then on the lower arm of each ramp once again I pulled tiny ramps at about 45 degrees to the arm. You can see from the screen captures how the polygon mesh dictates the outcome. Which dictates how you address laying down mountains with canyon features. Otherwise, you will pull up big blobs and massage them to look like 10,000ft hills to get around working with, not fighting the mesh.
Because I'm building mountain ranges on my current terrain that have canyons, my strategies in how I create each range is dictated by the polygon mesh. Still, no two places on earth where mountains are concerned, are clones of each other.
The snowflake from above then screen captures from different angles. From above, the top of the screen in the first screen capture is North. You can see how the polygon mesh effects things at different compass headings.
In the end some compass headings are great and others you have to get creative.
