The concept of "Alpine divorce" is gaining attention across social media after a woman shared a TikTok claiming that her boyfriend left her behind on a hike.
"Just saw a TikTok of a girl whose boyfriend abandoned her during a hike in the woods," @hell_line0 wrote on X. "The comments were all about how this is a thing multiple men do. It's so common it's called Alpine Divorce and there are support groups for it...All I can say is wtf is wrong with men??? Why would you ever consider abandoning someone that way? I'm mortified."
Although @hell_line0 didn't specify which TikTok she was talking about, one recently viral video seems to fit the bill. Last week, TikToker @everafteriya posted POV footage during which she alleged that she went on a hike in the mountains with a man who subsequently left her alone on the trail.
The video has racked up over two million views since it was first uploaded, with many commenters sharing their outrage and bringing up "Alpine divorce."
What is "Alpine divorce?"
In short, the term Alpine divorce refers to the idea of quitting a marriage by taking a significant other up into the mountains and either leaving them behind and leaving their fate up to chance or fully orchestrating their demise.
It's unclear where the term originated, but one early usage comes from a 19th century short story by Robert Barr called An Alpine Divorce in which a man schemes to kill his wife on a trip to the Swiss Alps.
Men abandoning women on hikes
TikToker @everafteriya later clarified that, while they were on the hike, the man she was with said he "wanted to get to the top of the mountain before other people on the trail, so he said let's run." That, she says, is how they got split up, as he ran ahead faster than she did. Her account of events have not yet been verified.
Still, the idea behind all of this is something known to happen. Just this month, an Austrian climber was convicted of manslaughter after he abandoned his girlfriend—a less experienced climber—on the Grossglockner mountain in January 2025, where she died of hypothermia. During the course of the trial, it was also discovered that he had done the same thing to a previous girlfriend two years prior, but she ultimately survived.
There are other videos across social media from women who claim to have been left behind on hikes by their boyfriends, as well.
One popular multi-part video series from 2024 drew outrage on TikTok before ultimately being taken down, although stitches and compilations with commentary still exist.
Whether this is genuinely a widespread, largely unreported trend is unclear, but the fact that it's resulted in at least one death and claims of similar incidents on TikTok has women concerned and angry.
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