The term ‘Alpine Divorce’ is gaining popularity on social media, as women share stories of being abandoned, often in the middle of nowhere, by their male partners.
Typically used in reference to hikes or climbing trips, victims describe being left while their male partner walks on ahead — leaving them both emotionally, and sometimes physically, wounded.
Whether a cruel way to abruptly end a relationship or a twisted power play, an Alpine Divorce can have devastating consequences.
Tragically, in January 2025, an Austrian women, Kerstin Gurtner, 33, died of hypothermia after her boyfriend, Thomas Plamberger, 37 — an experienced climber — left her on the side ofmountain.
This month, he was convicted of manslaughter. During the trial, it was revealed he’d done a similar thing to a previous girlfriend, who had survived the incident.
‘My boyfriend did this to me’
TikTok user @everafteriya was one of the first women to speak out about this behaviour.
Documenting what happened to her over the course of four videos, she shared her frustration after her partner kept repeatedly walking off and leaving her behind on a walking trail.
Viewed by over 19 million people, she captioned her last video: ‘POV: you go on a hike with him in the mountains but he leaves you alone and you realise he never liked you to begin with.’
In the clip you can hear how distressed she is, barely able to get her words out as she’s crying so intensely.
Shockingly, the comments section was filled with accounts from individuals who had endured this exact scenario, describing incidents of being left ‘on a hike out of the Grand Canyon,’ ‘abandoned by her partner on a trail’, or ‘left by the side of the road’.
And on X, @MibshaD shared a video of herself on a hike in the Scottish Highlights, wandering alone while her ‘situationship was miles ahead’.
Is 'Alpine Divorce' illegal?
‘Alpine Divorce’ is not a legal or criminal term, rather an informal phrase that’s been adopted on social media.
However, if you are hiking with someone there is a duty of care expected. If you intentionally leave someone in a situation where their survival is threatened, then you could be prosecuted for criminal negligence.
‘Not only is this toxic, it’s highly abusive’
Psychologist Emma Kenny tells Metro: ‘If men are really doing this, not only is it putting their partner in absolute danger, but it’s also giving their partner a powerful message which is “you’re disposable,” and more than that “I don’t care what happens to you”.’
Trying to understand where the intention here could come from, Emma theorises that it’s either someone trying to be coercive. For example, a guy that doesn’t want to leave the relationship, but wants to teach his partner a lesson.
Or, she adds, it’s someone who genuinely sees their partner as trash, thinks they’re disposable and sees it as funny.
The expert continues: ‘Emotionally, on a trauma level, it’s humiliating. But abusers love to humiliate victims.’
Emma does emphasise how harmful it can be when these kinds of conversations are communicated as ‘social media trends’ as there’s danger the deeper message can often become diluted, lost or skewed.
But while clicks and engagement might not be helpful to the conversation, it’s oftentimes these platforms that allow women to find community after having gone through such a disturbing experience.
‘He waited until I was in tears to reappear’
It’s not just in extreme or harsh environments where women have experienced this abandonment.
Speaking to Metro, Hannah*, 35, reveals how her then-boyfriend left her in a foreign country.
She says: ‘We’d gone on a city break to Berlin. It was January, it was absolutely freezing, and there was hardly anyone around as the weather was so bad.
‘It was getting dark, my phone had died, we were a bit lost, and I remember just feeling quite on edge.’
It was at that moment, as the pair got to a crossing, that her boyfriend seemingly vanished.
Hannah continues: ‘The lights were just about to turn back to red, and my boyfriend chanced it, and went ahead, crossing the road without me. One minute he was there — the next he wasn’t.
Hannah followed in what she thought were her boyfriend’s footsteps, but minutes passed, and he was nowhere to be seen.
‘I literally couldn’t see him anyway. It might sound silly to some — I was in a capital city after all — but I suddenly felt so vulnerable and alone. I had no idea where I was, or what had happened to him.
‘I ended up just standing there, silently sobbing, with no idea what to do.’
It was only when Hannah’s boyfriend realised she was in tears, that he reappeared
‘He’d done it on purpose,’ she says. ‘He thought it was funny and was literally laughing in my face.’
Five years on, and the pair are no longer together. ‘It turns out, a lot of the behaviours he displayed over the course of our relationship were controlling and manipulative — this was just one of them.’
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