HellsBelle5d ago

Women are being abandoned by their partners on hiking trails. What’s behind ‘alpine divorce’?

https://sh.itjust.works/post/56947245

Women are being abandoned by their partners on hiking trails. What’s behind ‘alpine divorce’? - sh.itjust.works

MJ calls what happened to her in Zion national park “small ‘T’ trauma”. She knows women have experienced worse from their partners. But she still feels the anger of being left behind on a hike by her now ex. “It brings up stuff in my body that maybe I have not cleared out yet,” she said. Five years ago, MJ and a new partner – he was not exactly her boyfriend, and the pair were not exclusive – traveled from Los Angeles to Utah for an adventure getaway. MJ, who is 38 and works in PR, was looking forward to exploring Zion’s striking scenery; its vast sandstone canyon and pristine wading trails were on the list. But on the morning of their big hike, MJ was not feeling well. She could not shake the feeling that something was “off”; indeed, MJ would learn on this trip that her partner was seeing other women. As they made their way up Angel’s Landing, MJ’s partner started walking faster than her. “I could tell it was getting on his nerves that I was slow,” she said. “I was like, ‘Fuck it, just go ahead of me.’” He did without hesitation. When she caught up at the top of the mountain, they took a picture together. Then her partner hiked down the mountain with a woman he had met on the way up, leaving MJ to finish by herself. They broke up shortly after that trip. (MJ asked to be referred to by her initials for the sake of speaking openly about a past relationship.) Last month, MJ opened TikTok and heard the phrase “alpine divorce”, a label she now attaches to her experience in Zion.

Show threadDonebrach4d ago
Maybe “MJ” herself is a shitty person, and roped some equally shitty dude into a shitty time and he decided on the way up “fuck this lady” on a probably very easy day hike and ditched her.
Show threadDoomsider4d ago

Maybe she was shitty, but we know he was. You never abandon your hiking partner under any circumstances.

Reminds me of people going out and drinking and abandoning their friend who then gets SA. It is import to go out with good people not superficial cunts.

If you don’t like them then don’t hike with them again. It is that simple unless you are a sociopath.

Show threadDonebrach4d ago
The fact that he was reported to “hike down with some other woman.” And that she was able to complete the hike herself tells me it was a very easy trail and heavily populated. Just a dumb story of two assholes one of which decided to make her shitty date into an avenue of internet content for the hopeful attempt at gaining some influence. The dude was probably just annoyed and childishly trying to cause an issue with her and was like “I’m gonna walk the half mile down the 0 grade dirt path to the car with Stacy, babe.”
Show threadDoomsider4d ago

You don’t abandon someone period unless you are a sociopath. I get that you would abandon someone and let them die, get raped, assaulted, etc.

Choose your friends/partners very carefully.

We are just built differently I guess.

Show threaddandelion (she/her)4d ago

it’s not like the article or the phenomenon of “alpine divorces” rests on this single story, either, there were many stories shared in the article:

an amateur Austrian mountaineer was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter for leaving his exhausted girlfriend behind on his country’s highest peak while he went in search of help. The man, a Salzburg chef identified only as Thomas P, said he was “endlessly sorry” for her death, and his lawyer called it a “tragic accident”. But Thomas P could not explain why he failed to wrap his freezing girlfriend in her emergency blanket before heading down the mountain without her. Earlier in their trek he had also told a police officer over the phone that they did not need any help, even though a rescue helicopter was made available to them.

A former girlfriend testified that Thomas P had left her behind on a trail during a hike in 2023 – “so that was the last mountain expedition we undertook together”, she said.

or

A few years ago, Naomi was hiking Arches national park in Utah when her group noticed a woman lying on the ground in distress.

The woman told them she suffered from severe vertigo – not ideal given the park’s topography – and her date had gone to retrieve his camera after she accidentally dropped it into the bowl near Delicate Arch. “There was no way she was going to get out by herself, and we hiked with her back down to the trailhead,” Naomi said. On the way, they learned that she was on a “second or third date” with the man. “We were asking her, like, ‘So … this might be the last date, huh?’”

Show threadsem

This last one really confuses me. Like if somebody knocked my camera down some rocks, I would go down and get it unless I thought they were experiencing a medical emergency of some kind.

Is Vertago a serious condition? I thought it meant getting dizzy when you’re afraid of heights. I suppose if I were in that position I would want to sit down with my hiking partner and make sure we had a plan like hey I know you’re feeling uncomfortable, but it doesn’t look like you’re in any danger. I need to get that camera back because it is expensive. I’ll meet you back here and we can hike down together.

Also, and I’m asking this out of pure ignorance, If someone has vertigo, at what point is it their responsibility to turn back rather than put themselves in an uncomfortable position? Maybe they shouldn’t have gone up where the camera got knocked down in the first place. But on the other hand maybe it happens by surprise and there’s no predicting it.

Mar 19 at 4:31amWeb
Show threaddandelion (she/her)3d ago

vertigo is very dangerous on a trail with heights and steep drops like that, because you can’t balance yourself - it’s very scary and dangerous in a situation like that.

Hell, even in my house I’ve had vertigo I was worried would result in my hitting my head or falling, just trying to navigate getting to a bed. Severe vertigo can additionally cause lots of distress, I can understand someone not wanting to be left alone in the middle of an episode.

That said, I understand wanting to go get your camera - I just think it is clear he prioritized the camera over her. The point isn’t that the camera is worthless, or it’s always wrong to look for the camera - but that you probably shouldn’t prioritize the camera over the well-being of another person who probably shouldn’t be left alone in that moment, and who has no independent way to get back to the trailhead without you.

A lot of this has to do with the dependence they have on the person, and the person’s responsibility to care in that moment.