What starts as a romantic mountain getaway can quickly turn into a life-threatening ordeal. Across TikTok, Reddit, and X, women have been sharing harrowing accounts of allegedly being left behind by male partners during remote hikes, a phenomenon that has been widely dubbed the 'alpine divorce'. In some cases, the consequences have reportedly turned deadly.
The term gained attention in early 2026 when Austrian climber Thomas Plamberger was convicted of gross negligent manslaughter after leaving his girlfriend, Kerstin Gurtner, alone on the Grossglockner, Austria's tallest mountain, in freezing conditions. She later died of hypothermia.
