25-Year-Old Hiker's Ex Broke Up with Her in One of the Worst Places. But Her Viral 'Alpine Divorce' Isn't Her Whole Story

NEED TO KNOW

• Aila Taylor was in the Canadian backcountry in 2024 with limited phone signal when her then-boyfriend texted her to break up

• When Taylor tells this story today, she sees it in a bigger context: as a “toxic” pattern of pushing away from her even to the point where she could be stranded

• She and other women are speaking out about these "alpine divorces"

Aila Taylor had this one ex-boyfriend who had this particularly annoying habit of ditching her on their hikes together — complaining she was walking too slow, say, before speeding ahead of her — so it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise where he broke up with her two years ago.

Still, the how of it all was no fun at all.

Taylor, 25, was in the Canadian backcountry with limited phone signal when he texted her.

“Now is not a good time,” she remembers responding.

His answer? “Well, there’ll never be a good time.” And that was that.

When Taylor tells this story today, she sees it in a bigger context: as a “toxic” pattern of him pushing away from her even to the point where she could be stranded.

She’s not the only one that feels that way. In recent months, women have begun sharing stories of similar relationship problems , often during outdoor activities, often with unreliable male partners who use the circumstances to leave their partners behind, sometimes for good.

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The habit is mordantly nicknamed an “alpine divorce” in reference to — of all things — a twisty 1893  short story of the same name by Robert Barr. Spoiler alert: The woman in that story dies in the end, the apparent victim of her husband’s murderous scheme.

The “alpine divorce” trend has turned up on TikTok and in news coverage, fueled by the case of Austrian climber Thomas Plamberger , who was convicted in February of gross negligent manslaughter after leaving his then-girlfriend, Kerstin Gurtner, on Austria’s tallest mountain in freezing conditions.

Gurtner later died of hypothermia. An ex-girlfriend said in court that Plamberger had also left her during a hike.

Taylor, an environmental writer, public speaker and activist who lives in Kendal, England, says her case was far less serious but far more common. “I didn’t realize it was a toxic behavior at the time. So I think it’s important to recognize behaviors early on when they occur so it doesn’t escalate to the level it did with me,” she says.

Now, Taylor says, the accounts of “alpine divorce” are being framed in a way where women can talk with each other about safety.

“There are lots of other women coming forward and sharing their stories now,” she says. “We need to get out and reclaim your own narrative.”

At the same time, Taylor says, she finds the new prevalence of these stories to be both beneficial and detrimental.

“It’s become so popular it’s almost become this trend that is reinforcing the very gender stereotypes we are trying to divert from,” she says. “It focuses on this concept of women being left behind and presents women as powerless.”

Taylor is well aware of the misogyny that women can face in outdoorsy environments, she says.

This past winter, she was climbing in Scotland and there were more than 100 people around her. Yet she did not see another woman there.

When she commented on it, another climber casually told her that it was because “women aren’t cut out to be good at winter climbing, they don’t have the right body for it,” she says.

“So the whole topic of ‘alpine divorce’ is just a small nugget that’s part of wider beliefs about women and our capabilities,” Taylor says.

She cites her own breakup in early 2024: “Technically I was abandoned on a mountain because [he felt] I wasn’t walking fast enough.”

Afterward, she says, she walked back to her van as it was getting dark. But “I didn’t feel abandoned, I felt annoyed,” she says. She felt comfortable on her own outside: “I was lucky. I’ve heard stories of women who didn’t. I know I’m not going to be dependent on someone else in the mountains now.”

Later, Taylor took a swim in an alpine lake and thought about what had happened.

“I remember thinking my entire life had fallen apart — but the world in front of me was very beautiful,” she says. “And that was kind of something that grounded me in that experience.”

Ultimately, she calls for media and public narratives about “alpine divorces” to move toward highlighting women’s resilience, agency and solidarity.

After all, in that original short story nearly 150 years ago, it turns out the wife wasn’t pushed. She actually jumped — knowing her husband would be the one left behind.

Read the original article on People