This paper looks at the diversity of women’s and girls’ lives, work patterns and aspirations across different agro-ecological and social contexts in the north Indian mountain state of Uttarakhand. Adopting an intergenerational lens and drawing on location-specific empirical material that emerged from an inductive, iterative and dialogic research process, we explore how Pahadi (mountain) young women and girls express rural modernity. The younger generation’s access to schooling and exposure to a wider world through television, social media and consumer and popular culture is shaping aspirations for another kind of life; girls are distancing themselves from the agriculture and forest work that still defines the lives of their elders. This generational gap casts new light on the diversity of experiences and growing complexities that characterise contemporary Pahadi households, as trajectories of change over the past few decades have altered physical, material and social landscapes. People’s relationships to the land and natural resources are changing, as are their concerns and priorities; the young in particular seek new social roles, relationships and ways of being in the world. Our work highlights the urgency of developing more nuanced understandings of the embodiment of gender in mountain ecosystems that draw on these contemporary realities and, critically, acknowledge social and attitudinal realities as the young themselves perceive them. At a conceptual level, gender analysis based on cross-generational differences challenges the common perspective that views mountain women within a restrictive domestic economy and natural resource management approach while overlooking the heterogeneity of circumstances and experiences that shape their lives. At a methodological level, this study contributes to learning from a participatory bottom-up research design that enables under- or unrepresented voices to come forth, not merely in academic writing but also within the household and the community. At a practical level, it offers a way of reflecting on what a realistic mountain perspective and sustainable development approach needs to consider in this moment of the 21st century that will contribute to a more engaged on-the-ground policy