Hopefully you by no means end up left behind by a accomplice whereas mountaineering a mountain or deserted within the woods. When you do, you is perhaps a sufferer of an “alpine divorce.”
The phrase has gained traction on social media in latest weeks following information of a climber’s responsible verdict after he left his girlfriend behind on a hike, the place she froze to dying on Austria’s highest mountain.
The phrase is alleged to have originated from the 1893 short story An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr, through which an sad husband plots to kill his spouse by pushing her off a mountain throughout a visit to the Swiss Alps.
Throughout platforms like TikTok and X, girls have started sharing their own stories of occasions they had been allegedly left behind to fend for themselves by companions throughout hikes.
One TikTok creator posted a brief clip of herself strolling alongside a mountain path earlier this month. Within the clip, she is audibly upset.
“POV: you go on a hike with him within the mountains however he leaves you alone by your self and also you understand he by no means preferred you to start with,” she wrote within the video’s text overlay. Her video has since gone viral, with over 19 million views.
The feedback part is full of comparable tales from different customers. “My boyfriend did this to me. I discovered one other hiker to indicate me the way to get again then I went residence and blocked his quantity,” one wrote.
“This occurred to me in Joshua tree on a day when it was 100+ levels exterior,” one other wrote. “My ex husband left me and took the backpack with water and snacks. I assumed he’d come again however nope. Lastly discovered my means again to the automotive and he was chilling within the entrance seat with the AC on. Evidently we’re divorced.”
Whereas lots of the tales are unverified private accounts, the latest surge in consideration has additionally served as a grim reminder of the real-life case that echoes the trope’s darkish origins. Thomas Plamberger, 37, was found guilty of gross negligent manslaughter over the dying of his 33-year-old girlfriend, Kerstin Gurtner. He was given a suspended sentence of 5 months in jail and fined 9,600 euros (about $11,300).
In January 2025, the 2 hiked up Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain. After Gurtner turned exhausted, Plamberger deserted her roughly 50 meters from the summit in freezing, high-wind circumstances and with out an emergency blanket. She later died of hypothermia.
Throughout the course of the trial, an ex-girlfriend of Plamberger’s got here ahead and testified that he had additionally left her alone on an evening hike on Grossglockner a number of years earlier.
“As soon as we descended the Glockner at night time, and abruptly he was gone,” she reportedly said. “I felt dizzy, I screamed, and I used to be utterly alone. From then on, we didn’t go on any extra hikes collectively.”
