Women Are Being Abandoned by Their Partners on Hiking Trails. What’s Behind ‘Alpine Divorce’?

Alaina Demopoulos examines “alpine divorce,” where women are abandoned by male partners on hikes, a trend that gained attention on TikTok. She deepens the analysis by tracing its literary origins and incorporating real-life case studies with expert perspectives. Demopoulos ultimately argues that ego and cultural ideas of masculinity can drive this behavior—with potentially dangerous, even deadly, consequences.

Outdoor culture romanticizes pushing your limits and flexing endurance. Folk heroes have been made out of rugged men such as Timothy Treadwell, the environmentalist who was mauled by the grizzly bears he lived alongside, or Christopher McCandless, who eschewed society to live alone in the wild and later died of starvation. “There’s this emphasis on strength, independence and stoicism that is really embedded in the way males are taught to prioritize character traits,” said Doriel Jacov, a New York-based therapist who specializes in relationship patterns. “Masculinity seems to play a role in how alpine divorce manifests in real life.”