You don't get a good grasp of the snow. I think a high ISO and a speed of about 1/500, and the smallest aperture you can get is what I would have tried in a situation like this.
Maybe zoom further forward, so you only see water, some sticks sticking out of the water in the foreground, and maybe get some more detail of the trees behind.
There are some aspects of this scene I really like, such as the appearance of the pine trees in the distance. Good dimension to that. On the negative side, there is a visible tilt to the image and that is likely hurting it a lot. Also the foreground does not have much interest or oomph to it. I think cropping some off the bottom and fixing the tilt would make for some huge differences. There some good potential to this scene, however. If you choose to do a post-challenge reedit of this, I would love to see it.
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for the Mu (most underrated) award:
Positives:I feel that you've captured a sense of wildness here - it's almost chaotic; I suspect you've captured the feel of what it would be like to be there. I like the coloration too.
Critical stuff: The image does seem a little out of alignment, I get the sense that it should be rotated slightly counterclockwise - I can see how this contribute to the choas I like but it still bugs me a little.
Overall: A very effective image - one that has the capacity to transport the viewer.