The mountains is literally the easiest place if you don't mind a little cheese. It can be brutal if you try to go head first and brute force through it, though.

as long as you are wearing frost resist (or a potion, but try to get past that asap), the drakes don't do much and drop with a bow shot or two. Everything else will glitch on the terrain, just run up a near vertical wall and whack one time with the pick, and you have a little ledge you can stand on and kill everything with no risk. This is also how to climb without trying to circle around via some path, just straight line where you want to be with a little pick work.

wolves in melee are a risk if using a slow weapon. Swords are great as the fast speed counters the wolf's speed and you can beat them with a block until attacked then swing approach that you should know well by now. golems are a bit of a pain but they kill everything else, so you can drag a wolf pack by them for some 'help'.

If you get stuck in a crack, a hoe or pick hit or two should fix it. the only unescapable cracks are player made, are you digging holes?!

Mountains are also the shortest area. 2 veins of silver makes your armor and homestead stuff. A third upgrades it. And you are pretty much done. 2 at once is fairly common when you search it out too. About 20% of your stay will be finding and hauling silver, 30% exploring, and the rest hauling moder eggs around and trying to deal with the boss. Hauling the ore is sweet as well, you portal up, but slide down like buzz lightyear flying (falling, with style).