There is a short time, usually at high elevation, just before sunrise when the sun's light bends over the earth's curvature to hit mountains. This glow is much softer than direct sunlight. Be sure to be ready and shooting when you see this glow. To the eye it looks very subtle but it really glows in your images. What is really nice about this glow is that it will almost never blow you highlights. The morning light can turn harsh within minutes. Once direct sunlight shines on the mountain you almost struggle with dynamic range issues from the start. Your mountain is bright because it gets sunlight, but your foreground at lower elevation is still in deep shadow. Your camera cannot see both detail in the dark shadow and the lit mountain. This is why people are often disappointed as the scene looks gorgeous to the human eye but the photograph does not work because either the bright sections are too bright or the dark sections are too dark.

          Shooting while there is Alpen Glow solves this problem because the light is not that intense. Therefore the difference between the light parts and the dark parts are not as much as it is going to be when there is direct sunlight on only the elevated parts of the image. Alpen Glow does not last long. So be out early. Have everything setup and ready. Compose and focus early. Shoot early. Shoot, shoot, shoot when you see the glow. First light and last light are warmer types of light (more orange; whereas blue light is cold light). When orange, reddish light falls on reddish rock you have red on red which intensifies the red. Be careful when you post process because the red may look overdone. People will tell you that it looks too saturated even though you never added any saturation. At times this red may be so strong that you need to actually remove some of it. Yet, that is the way it looked.

          Ensure that you do not just rely on really nice light. Your composition is still important. Look for those foregrounds. Attempt to find lead in lines.  Here is an example of this kind of glow light.

Get out early. Chase high elevation and see what you get.