As the weather begins to thaw, we want to talk about a dangerous outdoor trend. People of all ages are looking for love and human connections. We fully support our customers putting themselves out there and finding love! But we caution women about going for a hike with men with whom they haven’t had a planning session beforehand. You could find yourself getting an “alpine divorce.”
Alpine divorce is a new dating term for a man abandoning his date on a hike. It comes from a 1893 short story by Robert Barr about a man who plots to murder his wife by pushing her off a mountain.
Maya Silver experienced the phenomenon when her now-ex boyfriend left her in Colorado’s Unaweep Canyon. She wasn’t as fast as him. He marched ahead without talking to her. Ms. Silver was not an experienced hiker and spent two hours lost, and frightened of snakes and heatstroke as she walked alone.
“After one hour, you start spiralling in your head,” she said. “I worried that I might never get off the trail and find him, that he had left me completely, or I would take a wrong turn and trip and fall.” She is now an experienced climber and the Editor of Climbing Magazine.
The worst-case scenario is exhibited in the case of Australia’s Thomas Plamberger. He was found guilty of gross negligent manslaughter of his girlfriend, Kerstin Gurtner, who he left on Austria’s highest mountain. She froze to death. The pair got stuck 165 from the peak. Mr. Plamberger went down the mountain alone. While he did initially contact the emergency services, he then set his phone to silent. An ex-girlfriend testified against Mr. Plamberger at his trial, saying he had done this before as he left her on a hike that was too difficult for her.
Hiking and outdoor pursuits are often romanticized. However, they can be unsafe, especially when a person doesn’t know what they’re doing. Many women who experience an alpine divorce talk later of not having the right gear, enough water or not knowing the lay of the land. If you aren’t both prepared and working as a team, it’s not romantic; it’s potentially dangerous.
“If you invite someone on a hike, you’re basically acting as their de facto guide,” said David Webb, editor-in-chief of Canada’s Explore magazine. “Would a guide just storm off on their clients? Of course not. The guide moves at the pace of the slowest member, always.”
When you go into the great outdoors with someone, be sure to talk about your hiking abilities beforehand, as well as your goals for the hike. Do you want to reach the end of the trail, or are you happy turning around if you get tired? Are you going for the sake of spending time together outside or to accomplish a physical feat? Do you both know the area? Are you at the same hiking level? If not, is the more experienced person willing to promise to be a leader? If you have this open discussion before heading to the trailhead, you will have a wonderful day together where you both know what to expect. It’s when problems suddenly crop up that things can go from delightful to disastrous.
