We’ve already seen it thousands of times. A video goes viral on the other side of the world, a trend starts, foreign newspapers talk about it, the topic arrives distorted or greatly exaggerated even in Italy. Ah, even better if everything is suggestive, perhaps with some macabre notes. That’s exactly what’s happening with the Alpine divorcea formula by which we mean the abandonment of a partner in the midst of a natural environment. The dynamic described also tends to have a clear gender difference: the one who abandons is a man, the one who is abandoned is a woman.
It all started with a video on TikTok. The February 18 the user everafteriya posted a clip in which he walks between what appears to be the walls of a canyon. On the video we read a sentence: “You went for a ride in the mountains with him but he left you alone”. The video exploded: it had 26 million views. It attracted similar stories and then it ended up in the newspapers. Here, here’s the first thing. We are not talking about a trend: it is not fashionable to leave your girlfriend in the middle of nature during a trip. At most, a discussion started from a case. Others on TikTok have recounted similar experiences.
The stories of women left alone in the mountains
Some English-speaking newspapers they reconstructed these stories. They put together testimonies, recounted experiences, heard different voices. The Guardian interviewed Julie Ellison, director of Climbing Magazine: “It’s such a common thing.” In many cases we are not talking about real abandonments but about men accustomed to outdoor life who first invite their partners and then leave them behind alone to walk at a faster pace: “There’s that element of male ego that isn’t necessarily evil or ill-intentioned, but usually has a negative effect on the partner who gets left behind.”
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The Guardian also offers one literary frame around the Alpine divorcefinding its origin as an occurrence in an 1893 short story by Robert BarrCanadian writer. In the original version, however, more than an abandonment there is a attempted murder. The case also gained traction due to the story of Thomas Plambergeran Austrian man sentenced at the end of February by the Innsbruck court for abandoning his girlfriend Kerstin Gurtner during a climb.
Kerstin died of exposure. Here, however, the problem was of a different nature: Thomas had a greater experience and chose to walk away only to seek help. The court, however, found that its choices were not sufficient to ensure Kerstin’s safety. Some go further, going so far as to define the new wave of stories on Alpine divorce as the #MeToo of the mountain.
Because it makes little sense to talk about Alpine divorce in Italy
Now. Is there any difference between one nature trip in the United States and one in Italy. The nature we know in Italy is very anthropized. Even in the mountains, our natural environment is strongly anthropized: paths, refuges, equipped crags where you can practice climbing. In recent years, mountain tourism has grown enough to make it difficult to get lost on a day trip. Especially for newbies. At worst, you go back from the path you started from.
In the great American parks, where they are set these storiesthe natural environment is much more exposed. Once you leave the car tracks, the paths can climb for hours places without homeswater sources or refreshment points. And all in huge territories that are far from the population centers. Not only that. Smartphones have no reception and many parks close access to tourists during the evening.
In short. Young people on TikTok in Italy they are not organizing to abandon their companions in the middle of the Alps. The disclaimer also works at genders reversed. Of course, however, there are a series of stories related to this topic on social media in recent days raising interest.
