27 crash at Ely?

Is close_to_terrain slope and ridge soaring unavoidable in big mountain terrain in SW USA, or can you opt out and stay 1000+AGL when using ridge, thermal, wave, and convergence lift?

I did six hours of dual close_to_terrain slope soaring at Omarama in February largely to see if the risk/benefit made sense to me in a best case scenario where all factors (aircraft,pilot,terrain,weather) are top shelf.

I understand that if you opt out of close_to_terrain soaring, you might also be opting out of the big OLC scores, and fly fewer days, but that's okay with me.