The Mountain Ear - October 2026

Starting in July of 1916, forces from the allied French Republic and British Empire fought against the German Empire along the upper reaches of the river Somme in France. More than three million men fought for four and a half months. More than one million of them were either killed or wounded in the process, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history. 

Among the soldiers on the British side was a signals officer named John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, known as Ronald to family and friends. After four months of trench warfare, he contracted trench fever, spread by the excessive lice also inhabiting the trenches, and was returned to England to recuperate. Three of his closest school friends also fought at the Somme. Two of them did not return. One perished on the first day of battle. Another, Geoffrey Bache Smith, suffered a slower death. In a letter from his deathbed in December 1916, he urged Tolkien to make something of the mythology they had planned together. And so he did.

For much of my life, I felt like World War I was the most pointless war ever waged. It seemed like such a disproportionate series of consequences for the assassination of crown prince Franz Ferdinand. When all was said and done, the deaths were too many to count, estimated at 15-22 million. While I have thankfully never seen devastation on that scale, I have come to view every armed conflict of my lifetime as at best disproportionate and in most cases similarly pointless. (Comparing the relative pointlessness of a set of pointless decisions is itself a pointless endeavor.) As horrifying as the events of 9/11 were, the invasions of and subsequent loss of line in Afghanistan and Iraq were not justifiable. Russia invaded Ukraine because Putin's thirst for conquest outweighs his value of human life. Israel responded to a terror attack with a genocidal siege and bombardment of Gaza and the civilians living there. And then, as if not to be outdone, the United States pursued unprovoked invasions of Venezuela and Iran in an effort to control their energy resources. The answer to the killing of innocent people is not to kill more innocent people.

In this theater of the absurd, I am left to wonder how much of this is genuine ineptitude and how much is deliberate misdirection, intended to distract us from the myriad problems we are facing at home. It’s easy to fixate on the surge in oil prices due to the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The prices of gasoline and diesel are on bright red and green lighted displays everywhere we go. Less obvious is a community’s fresh water supply being diverted to cool a data center or a Flock camera being set up in a parking lot to track our movement and behaviors. The bodily autonomy of women and transgender people continues to be stripped away. Cornell's Jane Doe has become yet another example of women who are sexually assaulted and then treated as if they were at fault for men's violent lack of self-control, and we are no closer to holding any of the Epstein Island visitors accountable for their lascivious behavior. Simultaneously, the borders of national monuments are being reduced and the land opened for resource extraction. The travel management plan governing motor vehicle use on public land is being revised from closed until open to open until closed, with no evaluation of the environmental impact. The roadless rule is being eviscerated under a claim that it will make wildland firefighting easier, even though roads and the people who travel them are the cause of most wildfires.

When the zone has been flooded in such a manner, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. While billionaires are allowed to spend as much as they wish in order to influence policy according to their whims, what difference can an ordinary citizen make? As it happens, more than we may think. 

The most pressing concern for members of congress is getting re-elected. Elections cost a lot of money, which is why big donors have such lopsided influence. But ultimately, it comes down to votes. Representatives pay attention when constituents care enough about an issue to speak up. Yes, email helps. But when they see the same copied and pasted message over and over again, it quickly loses its impact. A phone call to your representative’s office in Washington carries significantly more weight.

Policy changes, such as the recision of the roadless rule, are subject to a comment period before the change can be enacted. At this writing, we are in the waning hours to comment on the roadless rule, but there is still time. 

While participating in a protest may not seem to make much of a difference, the data say otherwise. From suffrage to civil rights and from the tea party movement to the women’s march on Washington, protests lead to change, both towards progress and away from it. And while I don’t have data to back this up, I have a half-baked hypothesis that protest, whether it’s organized or impromptu, has another important effect: it shows people experiencing cognitive dissonance over a particular belief or opinion that they can find community if they change their minds. It’s like the shopkeeper refusing to put the sign in his shop window. David McRaney describes this phenomenon in his book How Minds Change. We don’t change our beliefs or opinions based on data or facts. We are willing to leave a community or tribe that believes one way when we see that we will be welcomed into a tribe or community that believes another way. Arguing is counter-productive, but organizing can accomplish much. 

As important as it is to speak up for what we value, for as long as we have free and fair elections, the rubber will continue meeting the road at the ballot box. And indeed continuing to have free and fair elections may very well be at stake in our upcoming midterms. If we do not hold our representatives accountable, the dismantling of our democracy will continue unchecked. Elections are always decided at the margins. Those margins are not typically a function of people making up their mind at the last minute, but rather of who at the margins feels strongly enough to show up and vote. If you care about clean drinking water, air that is healthy to breathe, conserving the natural wonders on and around which we recreate, and stalling the course of climate change before it’s too late, please show up and cast your ballot. This could be the most important election any of us will ever participate in.

It is so easy to think that one vote, one phone call, or one protest will not make a difference. Even if that’s true from a mathematical standpoint, it does not mean that the act is not still worthwhile. Tolkien lived through the horrors of trench warfare, which in his writing manifested in his descriptions of Mordor. He wrote much of The Lord of the Rings during World War II, which he sent in installments to his son who was deployed in Africa and while he himself had been engaged by the British military as a codebreaker. He lived through the threat of an unchecked autocratic power, not once, but twice. During it all, he wrote stories of hope.

When the newly formed Fellowship of the Ring has only just embarked on their quest and are still reeling from the loss of their leader, Gandalf, they find a brief respite amongst the elves of Lothlorien. While there, Galadriel, a leader of the Lothlorien elves, describes her engagement in what she calls the long defeat. 

“Together through ages of the world, we have fought the long defeat…

…I will not give you counsel, saying do this or do that. For not in doing or contriving nor in choosing this course or another can I avail. But only in knowing what was and is and, in part also, what shall be. But this I will say to you: your quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. 

Yet hope remains while all the company is true.”

What does Tolkien mean by the long defeat? In addition to living through the ravages of war, he saw the countryside in which he grew up swallowed by urban expansion and industrialization. While he did not live to see climate change, the digital age, or the rise of artificial intelligence, he was visionary enough that I doubt he would be surprised by any of it. To fight the long defeat is to stare in its face the seeming inevitability of what is happening around us and not lose our will. In Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the elves have been fighting to preserve beauty, wisdom, and order since the beginning of their history. They have won battles, but they have not won the war. As immortal beings, they have lived through what was and what is. They see the patterns and trends and therefore have a greater sense of what is to come. Instead of bitterness, they embrace compassion and stand in awe of beauty. They remain willing to protect what they cherish. They do so not because they expect to win, but simply because standing up for what they believe in and hold dear is the right thing to do, regardless of the outcome. 

A willingness to fight the long defeat is more useful than optimism. It enables us to see the impermanence of beautiful things and make art anyway, to understand the inevitability of death and loss and love anyway, to wear the scars of injustice and misfortune and grow anyway. Because the only thing worse than defeat is to turn back.

Go outside and be kind.

-Mark

Cabin Work Day

Each fall, we set aside a day to prepare the cabin for the coming winter. Our 2026 instance is planned for Saturday, 10 October. We will meet at the summer trailhead on Little St Joe at 9:00 and then hike into the cabin together from there. Please wear work attire and bring gloves and other PPE. Chainsaws, axes, and splitting mauls are helpful for preparing firewood, so bring those if you have them.

It has historically been our practice to give those participating in the cabin work day first priority when making reservations for the coming winter. This year, we have received an unprecedented number of reservation requests in advance of the workday, which has necessitated formalizing a cabin reservation policy:

Cabin reservations will open for the season following our cabin work day in early October. Club members participating in the work day are given priority when making reservations and will have until the end of October to submit requests. Beginning 1 November, reservations will open to club membership at large and will be on a first-come-first-serve basis. When making a reservation, please indicate the number of confirmed participants in your party, which can be updated if things change as the date draws closer. In order to ensure cabin access remains available to as many members as possible, we may allow more than one group to reserve at a time when the cabin is reserved for three or fewer people. 

If you have requested a reservation already and attend the cabin work day, your reservation will remain as requested. If you have requested a reservation but do not attend the work day, we will hold your request in queue until 1 November when reservations open to the club at large. If there is a conflict between your request and the request of a work day participant, we will work with both parties to facilitate a solution; however, priority will be given to those who attended the work day. We acknowledge that this may feel a bit messy and disruptive and apologize for any inconvenience that may result. It's a new problem for us as a club, and this is the approach that club officers felt was the most fair for all involved.

Achievement Awards

The first of our fall-through-spring monthly meetings will be on Tuesday, 13 October at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be held in the upstairs meeting room of Freestone Climbing Center on Shakespeare Street. At this meeting, we will be giving out achievement awards and recognizing club members who have completed any of the groupings of mountain summits noted on our website. If you have (or will have) completed one or more of these by October 13, please let us know so that you can be recognized. 

We would also like to recognize Rocky Mountaineers whose service to the club or to our outdoor community at large has been noteworthy. If you would like to nominate someone for special recognition, please send a message or contact one of the officers directly. 

Rocky Mountaineers Book Club

Our book club selection for October is The Sun is a Compass by Caroline Van Hemert. Our October meeting will be Wednesday, 28 October at 7:00 p.m. We will meet at Mark's house. Please RSVP if you'd like to participate. 

We ask that participants in the book club have read the book (though nobody will be excluded if you didn't quite finish). To clarify, "reading" in this instance is not narrowly defined as written words on a page or ebook screen. If you're an audiobook enthusiast, that is a perfectly acceptable reading method. 

TRM Gear Closet

Our exclusive for members Gear Closet continues to grow, most recently with the addition of more ice climbing gear. This gear is for you to use at no charge. If you’d like to check something out, send an email with subject Gear Closet.

A complete listing of all the gear we currently have available can be found on our website.

Upcoming Trips and Activities

Cabin Work Day - 10 October, 9:00 a.m. - Little St Joe

Monthly Meeting: Achievement Awards - 13 October, 7:00 p.m. - Freestone Climbing Center

Rocky Mountaineers Book Club - 28 October, 7:00 p.m. - Mark's House

Skin and Wax Party - 16 December - Tom's House

Avalanche Roundtable + Field Day - 17 December (roundtable), 19 December (field day) - Freestone (roundtable) and Lolo Pass (field day)

Winterfest - 23 January (conditions dependent) - Lolo Pass

Please visit our event calendar for details on these and other outings!

TRM Merchandise

We have merchandise available for purchase at our presentations, quarterly business meetings, and special events. Please contact Elizabeth at heyartemisoutside@gmail.com if you’d like to purchase something for local pickup.

Beanie $25	Pint Glass $10	Keychain $5
T-Shirt $20	Trucker Hat $20	Buff $5

Ongoing Call for Photos, Videos, and Presenters

If you have some photos or videos you'd like to share that we can use for social media, event promotion, sponsor videos and our newsletter please email Elizabeth or upload to this google photo/video link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/173AgLc4wrkYofvWA

If you are interested in presenting at a future Rocky Mountaineers monthly meeting or know of someone who would be, please contact Mark. We will begin filling our calendar for Fall 2026 soon. 

Club Officers

President- Mark Albrecht
Vice President – Francis Horton
Secretary- Carson Ramsden
Treasurer- Tom Statz
Website- Kyle O'Connor
Archivist- Julie Kahl
Social Media and Video Production – Elizabeth Smith