Re: Why are mountains so cold if hot air rises and you're closer to the sun?

The air will be radiating energy away as is rises. Any matter will be radiating 
energy. Its temperature will be determined by the balance of the energy it gets 
by rediation and conduction from its environment and the energy that it loses 
through the same means. Since air is fairly transparent to the suns energy, most 
of the energy will pass through the atmosphere and strike the earth where it 
gets either turned into heat or reflected. Most of the heating occurs at the 
Earth's surface. The air near the surface gets heated by conduction and 
convection then drives the air up. It generally loses temperature as it rises. 
If this were the only process, the atmosphere's temperature would get constantly 
cooler as you got higher , but that doesn't completely describe the situation. 
It does however answer your question in general terms.