I think that hiking in the mountains is great metaphore of life... sometimes you are tired, sometimes you don't like some part of the trails, sometimes you are on the top, sometimes alone, sometimes with people... you can feel many different emotions in life... and yes, you can get another point of view of many things.
I agree with you. I feel like the mountains are teachers for life in general. You can meet a lot of situations in life - miniaturized in the ones you find in the mountains. It's like they're preparing you to confront life.