As a pure guess, I never have my foot on the brakes for more than 10 seconds, unless I am stopped at a signal. A second guess is that once I use the brakes and release them it will be at least one minute before I press on the brakes again. With this usage pattern I just don't see much risk of brakes overheating.
I down shift when appropriate. I driver slower when appropriate.
However, I don't normally drive in the Rockies either, only the Sierras. And I don't drive in the desert, but the central valley certainly gets hotter than 100 degrees.
From my limited experience, for brakes to get too hot there must either be a defect or non-optimal use of the brakes. I've only been towing for 3 years, but driving for 40.
We had the front brakes, disc, on a 1986 Ford Crown Victoria wagon get hot and ignite the plastic backing plate once. The cylinder was dragging and the brakes did not fully retract. There was always a small amount of rubbing that was not noticeable. This falls into the category of a defect.
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