Mountain towns can be understood as appendages of elite metropolitan centers, places where the ultra-wealthy and the very powerful go to purify themselves from the soul sucking hyper-productive world of the city. There they find nature which they use to resolve the economic and social problems they face. Authenticity is regained amongst the aura, nature, recreational pastimes, and romanticized working poor found in mountain towns. These places also serve as stores of surplus value, with the exchange value of land and real estate appreciating dramatically, covertly contributing to the unevenness of capital accumulation. Place is coopted in this way, drained of its democratic qualities, and enclosed. Mountain towns serve as microcosms of how socio-economic structures, ecological crises, and local politics conjoin and interact more broadly across the country. This paper analyzes the place belonging claims of the ultra-wealthy, the shocking data on housing market conditions, community cohesion, and the crisis of social reproduction in mountain towns, as well as the response municipal governments have mounted to address the housing problem. Questioning the fundamental logic and orientation of housing, this paper highlights progressive alternatives to the way housing is presently allocated and offers a strategy that the constituents of the mountain town underclass can employ to ultimately win the right to housing and the ability to democratically decide who gets to enjoy the mountains.