ABSTRACT
Mountains are exhilarating and consoling. Particular mountains can be our partners in the dance of being. Mountains therefore become elevated, that is, brought into relief, when disclosed in our close relationship with them. Mountains get us to care about the quality of our relationship with them. The new challenge of our time is not to dominate mountains but to live by them. “Mountaintop removal and the dumping of wastes and debris into adjacent valleys is the greatest earth-moving activity in the United States”. Mountains show themselves as valuable in their own right when people respond to the mountains invitations to walk, hike, run, fish, climb, ski, or photograph them, but people in their response to these invitations show something of themselves as well.
