In honor of this thread I went night flying over the mountains last
night. Prior to the moon coming up, I took off from the Spanish Fork
airport in Utah in a 172 and flew up Provo canyon towards Heber. When I
had enough altitude I swung south and flew past the backside of Provo
Peak(11,000'). Once I was away from the lights of the city, I killed
all the lights in the cabin and descended into one of the dark canyons.
Simply by starlight I could make out enough features that making an
emergency landing in a field would have been doable. The mountains were
actually a lot darker on the other side with the Wasatch front cities
lighting them up (I think the light from the cities screws up my night
vision).

When the moon came up, the West facing sides of the mountains went black
but the East facing sides lit up enough that I could clearly see
everything (small clumps of grass sticking up from the snow, in between
the trees). I flew out of the mountains and back to the valley and
realized that I actually had more problems seeing anything on the ground
in the city (except for lit up areas) because the city lights
overpowered the moon. Potential emergency landing spots were simply
black holes.

I have been camping at night in the mountains when it has been so bright
I couldn't sleep at night and I have pulled out a novel to read.

I am not convinced that flying over the Rockies at night in severe clear
and calm conditions at night is any more dangerous than flying over them
in the day. In fact, when I take into account density altitude, less
turbulance and wind it may actually be safer.

LG