Alpine Divorce: Viral Clips Prompt Wider Talk of alpine divorce
The phrase alpine divorce has surged in online conversation after a user known as @everafteriya posted POV footage of being left alone on a mountain hike. The clip, and follow-up posts and reactions, have pushed the term into broader discussion among users and commentators.
Alpine Divorce in viral clips
One viral clip posted last week by the account @everafteriya shows a woman walking alone on a rocky trail and alleges she went on a hike in the mountains with a man who left her behind. The video has amassed more than two million views since it was first uploaded, and many commenters used the phrase "Alpine divorce" to describe the alleged behavior.
User accounts and reactions
User @hell_line0 wrote that she had just seen a video of "a girl whose boyfriend abandoned her during a hike in the woods, " and added that comment threads were filled with claims this happens often — "It’s so common it’s called Alpine Divorce and there are support groups for it…All I can say is wtf is wrong with men??? Why would you ever consider abandoning someone that way? I’m mortified. " Another user wrote that the clip came up on their For You page and had 4. 4 million views, saying that comments were filled with stories and that "being single is perfectly ok. " A separate commenter, using the name Neighaarika, argued that men in the comments were minimizing the pattern and wrote in caps that if something looks and sounds like a gendered crime, "IT IS A GENDERED FUCKING CRIME. "
How the incidents unfold
In the footage and in other testimonies, people describe the separation as often engineered: the partner who intends to leave will suggest running or simply set a faster pace, then disappear from view. @everafteriya later clarified that during the hike the man she was with said he "wanted to get to the top of the mountain before other people on the trail, so he said let's run, " and that he ran ahead faster than she did; her account has not been independently verified. Multiple other users have posted claims of being left behind by partners on trails, and at least one commenter wrote, "I legit had this happen on a hike in YOSEMITE. "
Historical note and lethal case
It is unclear where the phrase originated, though one early literary usage appears in an 19th-century short story by Robert Barr titled An Alpine Divorce, in which a man plots to kill his wife on a trip to the Swiss Alps. Separately, this month an Austrian climber was convicted of manslaughter after he abandoned his girlfriend, described as a less experienced climber, on the Grossglockner mountain in January 2025; she died of hypothermia. During the trial it emerged he had allegedly done the same thing to a previous girlfriend two years earlier, but that woman survived.
Wider online fallout and related threads
Discussion has spilled into adjacent internet culture topics. Some creators have used the episode to warn others to check partners’ media habits: one creator nervously laughed while showing a boyfriend’s YouTube history, which allegedly included playlists titled "Put her to work" and "Women want to care for you, " prompting warnings to "delete your YouTube watch history" if those videos are present. A multi-part video series from 2024 that drew outrage over similar claims was removed, though stitched clips and compilations with commentary remain in circulation. Whether the pattern represents a widespread, underreported trend is unclear in the provided context, but the combination of online claims and at least one fatal court case has left many women concerned and angry.
Other contemporary items in online culture have been discussed alongside the trend: critics picked apart Erika Kirk’s expressions during a recent State of the Union after President Donald Trump named Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, as an honoree and cameras cut to her; some viewers suggested her expression looked out of place and accused her of faking sorrow. Separately, creators and commenters have flagged a range of cultural stories, from brands and Flavor Flav rallying behind the U. S. women’s hockey team after what was called a misogynistic joke aimed at the men’s team, to social media imaginations of a TV set in 2026, to AMC’s decision not to play an AI short film on Thanksgiving Day. Other brief items noted online include a man who said he ended a 10-year friendship after not being invited to a wedding, an NYPD response to a snowball fight that prompted a criminal investigation, a feature of 16 people listing things they can now buy that they couldn’t as children, and a reference to Chris from Love Is Blind being discussed as a psych class case study.
Voices urging caution
Commenters and creators alike have emphasized the danger of abandonment on remote trails, warning that leaving someone inexperienced alone could lead to injury or death. One commentator framed the tactic as especially cruel, and others noted survivors’ support groups. A clipped headline used on one story read, "That's called murder, " capturing the outrage some observers expressed. The woman behind the central video walked back to safety on her own, and several commenters wrote that similar experiences have happened to them.
As the term Alpine Divorce circulates, users are sharing first-person accounts, historical references and a criminal conviction that together have widened the debate about abandonment on hikes and the risks it poses.
Closing note: many details in these conversations remain unverified and public reactions continue to evolve.
