I'm on flat land but at 4000' elevation, in the Basin and Range where the mountains are discrete units you can avoid unless you want to go explore them. But, one does not get here without going through a few remnants of the Rockies. I do plan carefully to avoid twisty roads with too-high grades, such as the road through Cloudcroft. The nearby one that goes through Ruidoso is a much better bet. I don't recall the Bandelier one, but Flaming Gorge is one route I'll not take willingly again.

My vehicle can quickly be switched to manual gearing, 6 of them, so it's a little more work to go through mountains but works fine. As far as braking, I studied up on that. One starts a downgrade at 45 mph no matter how angry those behind get, then stay in the right gear for your speed, and 'surge brake'; firmly but briefly brake now and then to keep your speed down, then coast a while, then surge brake again. Never just ride the brakes. When people have to do that they are either hauling too much weight for their engine, transmission and brakes, or they started the grade at or over the speed limit, and then quickly get out of control.

Honestly, I love driving the open road, though not crazy about mountain driving. To me, nightmare driving is anywhere that I am in city or construction gridlock or have to sit through the same light 4 times in a row. I just want to crawl through the windshield and get out of there.