One curious thing about mountain communities and communities occupying sheer-faced canyons is the limit to their localized economic development. The simple logistics of sheer surfaces and the constant pull of gravity puts hard constraints on patterns of development that usually run away on wide open spaces, patterns that develop with an intensity that is all the more extreme the closer these spaces are to bodies of water, rivers and other conduits for resource extraction and commercial transportation. As production clusters and minimizes friction and maximizes economy, growth, and complexity, development accelerates.
Yes, we can still truck up various construction materials and supply the basic modern amenities like housing and commercial structures, but you simply don't see the industrial parks, large scale power generation and waste management, refineries, malls, and dense housing in mountain and canyon communities that you see in urban environments.
The underdeveloped character of a given mountain or canyon neighborhood also lends the space a unique and "unspoiled" character that makes it easier to justify that community's fierce protection of that character, and strengthens the resistance to further development in those regions.
