Are there mountain rings?
Jelly, 38 bytes

Ẇ€Z$⁺Ẏµ,ZẈ&gt;2ẠµƇµḊṖZƊ⁺FṀ&lt;,Z.ịḊṖ$€Ɗ€ƊȦ)Ṁ


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Outputs 1 if the matrix contains mountain ranges, 0 otherwise.

How it works (slightly outdated)

I may be able to shorten the code a bit, so this section will probably undergo heavy editing.

The helper link

,Z.ịḊṖ$€Ɗ€ – Helper link. Let S be the input matrix.
,Z         – Pair S with its transpose.
        Ɗ€ – For each matrix (S and Sᵀ), Apply the previous 3 links as a monad.
  .ị       – Element at index 0.5; In Jelly, the ị atom returns the elements at
             indices floor(x) and ceil(x) for non-integer x, and therefore this
             returns the 0th and 1st elements. As Jelly is 1-indexed, this is the
             same as retrieving the first and last elements in a list.
    ḊṖ$€   – And for each list, remove the first and last elements.


For example, given a matrix in the form:

A(1,1) A(1,2) A(1,3) ... A(1,n)
A(2,1) A(2,2) A(2,3) ... A(2,n)
A(3,1) A(3,2) A(3,3) ... A(3,n)
...
A(m,1) A(m,2) A(m,3) ... A(m,n)


This returns the arrays (the order doesn't matter):

A(1,2), A(1,3), ..., A(1,n-1)
A(m,2), A(m,3), ..., A(m,n-1)
A(2,1), A(3,1), ..., A(m-1,1)
A(2,n), A(3,n), ..., A(m-1,n)


Long story short, this generates the outermost rows and columns, with the corners removed.

The main link

Ẇ€Z$⁺Ẏµ,ZẈ&gt;2ẠµƇµḊṖZƊ⁺FṀ&lt;ÇȦ)Ṁ – Main link. Let M be the input matrix.
Ẇ€                           – For each row of M, get all its sublists.
  Z$                         – Transpose and group into a single link with the above.
    ⁺                        – Do twice. So far, we have all contiguous sub-matrices.
     Ẏ                       – Flatten by 1 level.
      µ      µƇ              – Filter-keep those that are at least 3 by 3:
       ,Z                      – Pair each sub-matrix S with Sᵀ.
         Ẉ                     – Get the length of each (no. rows, no. columns).
          &gt;2                   – Element-wise, check if it's greater than 2.
            Ạ                  – All.
               µ          )  – Map over each sub-matrix S that's at least 3 by 3
                ḊṖ           – Remove the first and last elements.
                  ZƊ         – Zip and group the last 3 atoms as a single monad.
                    ⁺        – Do twice (generates the inner cells).
                     FṀ      – Flatten, and get the maximum.
                       &lt;Ç    – Element-wise, check if the results of the helper
                               link are greater than those in this list.
                         Ȧ   – Any and all. 0 if it is empty, or contains a falsey
                               value when flattened, else 1.
                           Ṁ – Maximum.