In my experience, the more goal/achievement oriented a person is in their relationship to nature, the more likely they are to care for it.
In my experience the more goal/achievement oriented a person is the more hollow and superficial their relationship to nature is.
You are essentially using a "No True Scotsman" fallacy here on hiking and mountaineering culture. I don't doubt there are lots of really passionate nature lovers who are deep into hiking and mountaineering. Of course there are, but the point is that the underlying ideology undermines the pursuit of connecting with nature in a way an overwhelming chunk of outdoor sports culture in the US seems oblivious too.
The people who dump their garbage everywhere tend to be people who come to the forest for a party, or to have a picnic.
These are not the people I am comparing to, I am comparing the obsessive peak bagging, personal goal oriented culture of outdoor sports to people who protect, spend time in and love the natural landscapes right outside their door instead of looking at instagram and fantasizing about climbing that one mountain they really need to climb to cross off their list that is hundreds of miles away. I don't see the culture of most outdoor oriented communities in the US as anything other than weaponized FOMO meant to push people into an endless loop of needing to conquer more and more nature to prove themselves to their peers.
Anecdotally I have noticed that the people I know who are the most accomplished hikers and outdoor enthusiasts are the least capable of enjoying a boring patch of woods or nature because they compare it to the mountain peaks in their minds and the beauty of the space in front of them becomes bland in comparison. This is not the mindset of a true nature enthusiast, it is the mindset of a conqueror who isn't amused by obstacles smaller than they have already witnessed and defeated.
To put it another way, I don't see most outdoor sports culture in the US as meaningfully different than downhill skiing culture, that is these things are fun, beautiful, challenging and rewarding to participate in but they aren't a process of becoming more intimately connected with and supportive of nature.
Frontier myths permeate outdoor narratives and media, shaping stories in ways that hinder meaningful self-reflection and critical analysis. These narratives often portray personal growth or enlightenment as achievable only through solitary, soul-searching journeys. This framing emphasizes the adventurer's internal experience while neglecting the broader social, environmental, and historical impacts on the lands and communities they traverse. Even today, the individual setting out to the frontier and removing the self from collective traumas or responsibilities continues to be a common theme from films, documentaries, books, history, and magazines. Whether or not we actively subscribe to these narratives, we are all affected by them. They obscure a fundamental truth: that survival, success, and even adventure are not the result of rugged individualism, but of our interdependence.