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.
Nothing is behind it. It’s another dramatized thing that people are using for social media clout to score points, and people lap it up. This is manufactured rage bait.
We are also only getting one side of the story. I know for a fact a few of my breakups where the other party completely warped the story to make me into a villain. I had one incident where I was teaching my gf to snowboard and she broke her wrist on the bunny slope, a super common injury. I spent all day with her in the hospital etc. We broke up 6 months later and started telling people I had shoved her to the ground and broke her wrist on purpose because I was jealous of her success as a pianist or something and was trying to sabotage her life . It was insane and her story got worse as time went on post-breakup.
90% of these are probably just unhappy people on a bad day who are re-writing the story into some elaborate narrative of evil and abuse because they know it will do well on social media. And a lot of tiktok/social media people are very unhappy people. And unhappy people do a lot of lying and exaggerating for attention. well-adjusted people aren’t making teary faced videos on tiktok about their breakups.
One of the main drivers behind this story (i should say, i think one of the main drivers) is the more recent one where a man abandoned his girlfriend in the austrian alps at night and left her for dead, and it turned out he’d (allegedly) performed that same stunt before with a different ex girlfriend (who survived).
I’m sure your personal situation might be “he said she said,” but some of these people are comparably wild
People do stupid shit all the time. I live near the White Mountains where there are multiple fatalities a year now due to idiots going climbing unprepared, many of whom claim to be experienced.
It’s one thing for people to die hiking due to negligence or stupidity, it’s another to claim ‘SHOCKING NEW TREND: MEN ARE ABANDONING WOMEN ON HIKING CLIMBS TO DUMP THEM’
Do you have proof of any of that or is it simply your opinion?
i have as much proof as the woman in the article has about her story.
which is none at all. it’s all hearsay. social media is all hearsay. this article is about social media stories.
there is no burden of proof here. anymore than there was for dudes going on about spermjacking women 10 years ago. I remember that viral panic.
Pretty sure the guy literally convicted of manslaughter for abandoning his girlfriend to die on a hike is evidence of this happening.
Well, no. Your post is ragebait. What’s behind it is the same thing it always was. It’s just, ya know, a trend of men not respecting their partners. It’s not new. It’s not dramatized. It’s just that typically men do not put in the same level of thought, care, and compassion for their partners as women typically do.
These stories are pretty standard abuse, honestly. I’ve heard similar types of things about shitty partners abandoning someone at amusement parks, concerts, and other venues because they got pushed into something and then didn’t “fulfill their end of the bargain” or keep up to the level that the first person wanted. Yeah, it is usually men that do this, but it’s not exclusively men. Just, ya know, most of the time.
Like, I don’t really understand how your bad breakup experience covers for this. You are downplaying the event without knowing both sides as well. Why is it okay to do that, but it isn’t okay for some to potentially dramatize it? You’re not even involved, so I think it’s worse to do this weird defending, because it sorta feels like you might be misogynist. Like, them’s the vibes.
I don’t know why you think it’s 90% of people making this up, but, uh, okay, buddy. There’s definitely no potential abusive behaviors here that a partner should look out for, it’s just 90% chance it was a bad day or a liar or something, and not shitty or abusive partners.
you might be misogynist. Like, them’s the vibes.
His post history will absolutely reveal this. This guy pops up in a lot of conversations to share stories of his evil ex girlfriends and how no woman around him wants anything but expensive bags.
He’s always very supported on this site, too.
Lmao, I didn’t even check, but you are right…
I date. I meet plenty of women who tell me on the first date that I must give up something to prove to them my worth or dedication to them. Because the point of the relationship to her is for men to suffer for her sake, and anything the man pursues for his own personal happiness is a her losing out on what should be given to her.
Oh boy, no wonder they have a lot of bad breakup experience!
I knew that the misogyny in this place was going to be worse than Reddit simply because of the size of users, but it’s even harder to stick around seeing all the support those types of comments get.
Hm, maybe I’m just not in the same places, but I usually see less here than Reddit, but that’s possibly perception bias on my end. I just call shit out when I see it, and this post just looked like it was misogyny because of the… Well, most of it looked pretty misogynistic, but I suppose I was giving the writer some undue benefit of the doubt. That’s on me, actually, I should’ve checked.
I dunno, I guess I just feel sad for people that believe that shit. They are just so fundamentally unhappy with themselves and they don’t know how to fix it.
There’s more social pressure on Reddit that pushes those opinions down. Since there’s less users here and there’s way more men than women, the casual sexism is thriving here. Thanks for calling it out when you see it.
sadly he’s been upvoted many times.
He’s always upvoted many times. It’s disgusting.
How many alts?
There’s a lot of men’s rights energy in here.
Damn what a cowardly way to dump someone. Is it really that much of a pain in the ass to stick it out for a couple of days until you’re not literally abandonning someone somewhere they didn’t expect to be alone? Bunch of douchy and selfabsorbed asshats.
Or to call it off before you start hiking. Or even to stick together not happy and not liking each other on your way back
For context, angel’s landing is one of probably the top 5 most famous hikes in the country. It’s so popular that they have timed entry, and you have to book a time well in advance. It would be very, very, very hard to get lost, you can see the spot you started from pretty much the whole way, you are part of a steady stream of people, and there’s cell service. There is no “alone” on that hike.
People have died on that hike, but if you exclude suicide and people who were intentionally going off trail to get pictures closer to cliff edges, it’s very unlikely. You are probably safer getting dumped there than at a restaurant in a part of town you aren’t familiar with.
I would not put that anywhere near the same category as guy who left his girlfriend on a mountaineering expedition.
People can have problems on a hike that aren’t deadly but still require support. If a partner is slow it might be because they’re getting sick or injured. Even if the chance of them dying is low, it’s still your responsibility as their partner to look after them. No one else on that trail is going to have a higher responsibility to support them.
It seems like the man and the women in this story both had different expectations for what kind of partnership they had.
If I was hiking with a buddy where we were on equal footing and both self-sufficient, and we were pissing each other off, then I wouldn’t feel like I had any special responsibility to them over any of the normal shared responsibilities that all hikers have to each other. We would owe each other common courtesy, but wouldn’t need to babysit each other on the trail.
If I felt like I was responsible for the other person, because they weren’t self-sufficient, then of course I wouldn’t leave them behind.
If I felt like I was in a relationship with the other person, and we were pissed off with each other, then maybe I would hike ahead for a few minutes to give each other some time to cool off. But I wouldn’t leave them to hike the hike on their own, if I knew they wanted to hike it together. I would care about my partner in a different way and want to prioritize the relationship vs. a buddy I was friends with.
Although I guess it would depend on the friendship I had too. There are some friends who I would feel comfortable hiking separately to the summit if we pissed each other off. And there’s other friends who I think I would not do that with.
I could even imagine being partners with someone who would prefer to hike separately to reach the summit and then try to make up there.
I’m sure that things vary from place to place, but wherever I’ve been in nature, strangers are very quick to check on you and help you out if you seem to be struggling. Whether it’s hiking, mountain biking, skiing, or anything else, we all know that it could be us someday.
I think this comment section is so contentious because there is a whole range of behaviors and experiences that this story brings up in people. And we’re all trying to speak in generalities about situations that are very nuanced when they happen in the real world.
Is the timed entry a new thing? I remember just walking in to the park. Maybe I was in the off season because it had just snowed the week before and there were still a few campsites closed.
I think it’s relatively new. It might also be seasonal. Last time I was there, they let you hike all the way up to the scout lookout before you need the permit. Basically as soon as you get to the bottleneck of the chain section.
Well, damn. That particular location would suck to be turned around at, because you’re so close…
But I can also see how having too many people at the last outcropping would lessen the experience for everyone.
My comment was mainly aimed at the general thought of just abandonning someone on any hike, not necessarily this particular one, but the whole “alpine divorce” thing in itself.
Don’t expect good things from shitty people.
Women need to learn how to identify womanizers if they don’t want to be womanized. Most of them don’t care though so it keeps happening.
I hear what you’re saying about staying away from shitty people, but anyone can lie about who they are short term, and when women are wary of all men in order to stay safe, we get hit with “not all men.” It’s a real lose-lose.
Women need to stop putting their faith in shitty men.
God forbid shitty men are told to be less shitty.
A person can do both. But my words of don’t be shitty won’t carry as much weight as them not getting laid. So both is a far more effective choice then only one.
I will also add two more. Women should stop having babies with shitty men, as they don’t teach thier sons not to be shitty, and men who get women pregnant need to step up and make sure thier son’s don’t grow up to be shitty men.It’s much more complicated than that. If only it were only this easy.
So many get rose colored glasses in early stage dating. We often become our best versions of ourselves, or… project the best versions, early in dating.
Then once comfortable, the gaurd comes down, the truth of who they are comes to light, and people get hurt. Often though, now heart strings are in place, and … name a worse duo, people pleasers/selfish people.
Yes yes, it’s all women’s fault that men are shitty. Thanks for enlightening me!
So saying both can be true now equals only one is true? I guess 2 + 2 = 5 as well.
They’re told that all the time and they don’t listen or care because they are shitty.
Everyone who rewards their shitty behavior encourages it.
As does everyone who ignores their shitty behaviour.
I will say that us women get pretty fucking tired of often being the only ones to speak up tho.
You need to teach each other how to recognize these predators so you stop falling prey to their tactics.
Personally, I don’t hang around shitbags so I don’t have an opportunity to tell them what they’re doing is wrong in any way that might matter to them. I’ve been saying this guy is trash this entire time.
What do you think the purpose of sharing stories like in the article is?
But men are very upset in here that women are talking about these stories. That it doesn’t happen enough for women to talk about it. That it’s sexist to share stories of the type of men who take these actions.
Women share stories, women gossip, women look out for each other in these ways all the time. We have to work together to protect ourselves from predatory men all the time.
Golly gee, thank you SO FUCKING MUCH for telling us that we need to teach each other. How would us silly women have ever thought of that if YOU didn’t tell us?
Yes. We really need more men to call each other out for this shit.
But somehow, all of the messaging to convince men to raise the floor have somehow been received as an attack on manhood when in reality, the results would benefit both men and women immensely.
Equality looks like oppression to men because they benefit from how society is now. They don’t care that women are blamed for how they act, they want to continue to oppress women for their own gain.
I feel like men teaching other men to grieve “losses” of male advantages is just one of many tactics used to spread anti-equality attitudes.
But yes, I agree. Many see “removal of unfair advantage” as “losing” instead of “rebalancing.” Not sure why you are getting downvoted for it.
Because I’ve pissed off some of the men in this thread and they’ve gone through and downvoted a lot of my comments. Meh.
I feel like men teaching other men to grieve “losses” of male advantages is just one of many tactics used to spread anti-equality attitudes.
Well said
We really need more men to call each other out for this shit.
It’s complete hypocrisy to direct this criticism at men specifically, given things like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3PgH86OyEM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEZH6YSQvwA
Return to reality. For one thing, the bystander effect is gender-neutral, so encouraging people to speak up when they witness mistreatment of others, regardless of the sex of either the perpetrator, the victim, or the witness, is inarguably positive. But singling out the sex that is demonstrably most likely to intervene when the opposite sex is witnessed being mistreated, as if males are the only ones that need to be ‘called out’ for non-intervention, does nothing but expose an extremely-obvious bias.
shitty men are more attractive than not shitty men, because shitty men are willing to do whatever it takes to get the girl, and then dump her on a mountain top.
shitty men are also really good at hiding how shitty they are, until they stop hiding it… and what a more perfect place to stop hiding it, than in the middle of no where with few witnesses.
so are shitty women.
most shitty people aren’t going to be shitty in public, they wait until you are in a vulnerable moment.
most shitty people aren’t goong to be shitty in public,they wait intil you are in a vulnerable moment.
Yeah they do. Ive known abuse from a few different, expierences, and it is always covert abuse. Kind people in front of others, mean/cruel behind closed doors. That how it can go on for so long and people can get trapped in these kinds of relationships. Sucks.
Yes, and it’s how you get gaslit. Because everyone else thinks they are so wonderful, so if you think there is an issue, it must be you that is problematic…
Lmao, I think most shitty people tend to be pretty fucking obvious. That’s sort of why people have common red flags. Like not dating people who talk down to others or who badmouth servers or who vote Republican. Because those warning signs don’t usually come out of nowhere, but I will grant that sometimes, rarely, shitty people do hide themselves.
I don’t think they are obvious at all.
Astounding that there are men in here defending these dickbags left right and centre. And presumably other men just like yep good point bro, technically correct. Please dump me and run off a fucking cliff you spineless turdweasels
A bunch of tech-focused men have shitty views about women? Color me shocked. /s
The guys who can’t muster up the courage to talk to a woman sure have a lot of opinions about them, don’t they?
Lemmy is better than Reddit but there are still terrible trolls and awful people here.
I’m willing to accept that it’s better in ways not relevant to this discussion, but tbh the ubiquitous casual misogyny is far more inescapable here imo
yes, I feel like Lemmy has a misogyny problem :-(
being critical of a news article isn’t misogyny…
You have no room to speak with the amount of terrible views about women you share on the daily.
I’ll admit that I had not noticed it before but it makes sense in light of other threads I have seen. There are a lot of people who act just like the meme angry vegan, the meme angry incel, or the meme angry tankie around here. It is disappointing, but humans are going to be human no matter where they are.
There are absolutely legit reasons to leave someone behind on a hike.
And I’ve heard zero of them in these stories from women.
Well, leave behind yes, abandon no. If they’re injured and you need to go for help, you make them safe as you can and then go. He did not make any effort to make her safe.
I actually expected far more defenders than I am seeing. Mostly I see some forms of victum blaming, though not directly defending the men’s actions. I do see some discussion too, which is pretty rare on subjects like this. Still a long way to go, but it’s a baby step forward I guess.
This idea that it’s totally normal and cool to start a hike with someone and then decide to leave them behind is mindboggling.
Yeah. Even if you figure out halfway through that you hate spending time with them you just fucking walk the rest of the way with them in silence. Sometimes things don’t go how you hoped and you have a bad day. Deal with it.
This! Fucking grow up
MJ and a new partner – he was not exactly her boyfriend, and the pair were not exclusive…[MJ] could not shake the feeling that something was “off”; indeed, MJ would learn on this trip that her partner was seeing other women.
This is like saying you agreed to go dutch on a date, and then feeling that something was “off” because you couldn’t shake the feeling he was intending to split the bill.
No shit?
It’s already been talked to death elsewhere in this thread, but there’s many reasons casual partners may have agreements to let each other know when new sex partners are introduced.
Including STIs and related health issues.
A recent case study illustrates this point: last month, 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.
I remember hearing about this one.
He had done it before with another woman, but she didn’t die. In the recent case, the dead woman’s family supported him. Even though he took their survival supplies. Very odd situation.
A new kind of serial killer 😂
Her mom’s issue is the media and courts treated her daughter like a lost sheep led up a mountain.
She was an experienced climber and they planned their trips together.
He didn’t take the emergency supplies, he just didn’t swaddle her like a baby in her own.
The helicopter call stuff was kind of shady tho, and rightfully why he was found guilty.
But it’s not like the mom said he was innocent, she said it was likely an accident, because procedure in climbs like that is to leave someone behind, and she knew that because her daughter had been doing this long before the boyfriend.
But her comments got misrepresented for the headlines.
It all makes logical sense, it’s just the people telling us about it care more about drama and clicks than informing people.
If you understand it, it becomes an incredibly boring story that doesn’t stand out. Which is why TikTok went the complete opposite direction, and mainstream media is reporting on their nonsense for the clicks.
Quick edit:
Specifically for the emergency blanket part, the last stages of hypothermia makes you feel insanely hot.
The early stages cut off circulation to limbs to keep the torso warm, that’s why frostbite effects the extremities, it’s a trade off. When you’re going to die from it, you’re body can’t squeeze you’re arties off and all that “warm” blood floods to your limbs, causing them to quickly rise in temp while the vital parts get cold.
So she likely was bundled up just fine when he left her.
That’s all normal stuff climbers know, but the media/courts seemed to be willfully ignorant of.
All the articles I’ve read say he never applied the emergency blanket, it was still packed away. Nor did he make her safe by building any kind of shelter or securing her against wind.
And then he also did not call for help until three hours after they decided they needed help, and rejected the helicopter rescue. None of those are normal things. Those are the actions of someone abandoning someone to die.
None of those are normal things.
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Which is why he was found guilty of manslaughter
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And those bad decisions may likely be due to stress/incompetence. Something that happens, but again that’s what makes it manslaughter.
Those are the actions of someone abandoning someone to die.
If you’re ignorant of the realities of alpine mountaineering I could understand why you believe that.
The dead woman’s mom wasn’t ignorant of it tho, that’s why she keeps saying it wasn’t murder.
How experienced are you with cold weather mountain climbing?
I grew up doing it.
Well, then you don’t have an excuse
Neither do you.
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Women shouldn’t bring up annoying nagging shit on hikes… because of the implication.
Haha wife bad funny right guys
article and downvotes is condemning men’s right to divorce almost as much as circumstances. Dogma of all wives always right about everything is challenged in a genuinely funny way, but downvotes hold the dogma sacred.
I’m hereby coining Feather’s Law: Any comment that mentions downvotes on its author’s posts is wrong.
I know this isn’t really the same, but the article struck a chord with my and the experiences I have with my fiance. She convinced me to buy and play Arc Raiders. (It’s an extraction shooter.) This isn’t the type of game I normally play. I am not good. She made a run for an extraction point, and didn’t wait for me to be in the elevator before pressing the button to extract, leaving me stranded with the enemy everywhere. (She’s run way ahead of me in game before and I’ve taken issue with it and explained I feel abandoned when she runs way ahead without me.) The last time we played, I happened to make it to the elevator before her, and I made a point to say, “are you in the elevator,” before pressing the god damned button.
Obviously, I wasn’t in real danger, but those experiences have made me wary of depending on her.
As you said no danger in your situation but it seems like your fiancee had the same mindset as the hikers (inpatience and disregard for other persons wellbeing).
Lots of people have that mindset. Regardless of the relationship. And lots of hikers have total disdain for anyone who is slower or less experienced than them. I had one hiking take where the woman was pissed off at me that I was not as fatigued as her, because she was more experienced, but I was fitter than she was, and she kept warning and lecturing me about how I better not fall behind her. I just laughed the entire time.
Book that therapy appointment. You’re obsessing over ex-girlfriends again.
Exactly why I started refusing to play video games with my ex-husband.
Maybe because it is outside when someone is being insufferable you can just walk away.
This sounds like what they called the starlight tours out in Saskatchewan.
deep racism where many people were outright murdered.
This shit going on with women is not seen as serious overall by society. It’s so very fucked up in two different fronts
This is so fucking sexist.
Hey everyone, women are just as capable of surviving in the mountains as men!
There’s some safety and ethical rules in the mountains. You don’t leave your hiking/climbing partner unless you both agree it’s fine. Gender of this partner doesn’t matter. Guy leaving another guy is equally bad as guy leaving a woman. Women are not inherently more prone to dying in the mountains than men. The fact that everyone treats this as someone abandoning a helpless person is infuriating. It’s shitty behavior but it would be equally shitty if this guy left his male friend or if she left him. It’s 2026, this is fairly progressive space and still everyone looks at with “women need protecting” mindset. It’s mind boggling.
When I see women in the mountains I don’t think to myself “oh my god, they are here without supervision? hope they will be fine!”. Am I the only one?
I’m just gonna say it, if you want to break up with your girlfriend don’t be a dick about it.
“Don’t go on a hike with someone you don’t trust.” All you little boys in here victim blaming need to be checked.
The amount and stuntedness of emotionally stunted immature men is only going up with social media…everything
Got back into the dating world recently and was pretty surprised to learn that respectfully communicating your feelings about things afterwards is apparently rare. People need to grow up.
Ever since social media took over, dating and relationship rates have plummeted.
he was not exactly her boyfriend, and the pair were not exclusive
her partner was seeing other women.
So she had a double standard. Then surprisepikachu’s when she tells him to go ahead and he does. Lol
Even casual partners will want to know if their partner is sleeping with others for a variety of reasons.
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.
He kept pushing ahead and going faster than she could, what else was she supposed to do besides tell him to go on ahead?
I would argue you shouldn’t give the person trying to do something bad exactly what they want
If I’m with a man who is clearly pissed off, im not going to insist he stay with me if he doesn’t want to. That’s more dangerous than being on a hike alone for a woman.
Ok fair tbh
I agree with you. It just gives them plausible deniability. Better to communicate clearly. “Stop walking so fast. I can’t keep up. I don’t feel comfortable being left behind. In fact, if you leave me behind, I’ll start a TikTok trend to shame you.”
These men that abandon their partner on hikes because they can’t properly express their own feelings should be publicly shamed.
Tell him to wait for you. You don’t abandon your hiking partners.
Still trying really hard to make this situation the woman’s fault, hm?
It’s a real struggle in that situation - do you insist that the man you’re with who is visibly frustrated and physically stronger than you wait? Or do you give him what he wants which is to push ahead and leave you?
This is why women choose the bear.
What part of “you don’t abandon your hiking partner” was unclear to you
Both of these people seem like shitbags so it’s not surprising they both do shitty things to each other.
Wow what an insughtful and balanced take. It must be true because your position is in the middle of two arbitrary extremes. Why didn’t I think of that!
i left this bitch ass on a mountain one time he was being toxic as hell. ruined my damn trip. left him up there with a group of girls we had just met. fuck it
Balanced take. This kind of thing is very veryserious. But also a dilution of the term Alpine Divorce, which people have died from.
Any of these women in the stories could have died while alone on a hike. That’s sort of the point.
But it is also not true that they were at risk? Any more than you could die anywhere.
You don’t think it’s more dangerous out in the wilderness than walking an aisle in a Target?
I disagree that a popular trail with many people can be called wilderness, but I would be okay calling it a backcountry location.
There are not too many things that can harm you on such a trail compared to another comparable physical activity, like playing soccer on a field for instance. The main difference is that it is harder to get to definitive care if you do get hurt.
On the soccer field, the ambulance pulls up in 5-10 minutes when you sprain an ankle or get stung by a bee and your airway closes up. On the hike, ideally you splint yourself and walk out if you roll your ankle, And do anything you can if you get that bee sting and have a life-threatening anaphylaxis, including call 911, lie down flat on your back, take bandadryls if you have them, and use your epipan if you have it.
But in both these cases you’re never really alone because there are so many other people. And on the trail, there’s probably a higher chance of encountering somebody with first aid training than on the soccer field.
To be honest, I’m not sure what exactly the context of your question was, but I assume it has something to do with leaving somebody to hike alone on these popular trails like angel falls or delicate arch in general.
In the specific example of the article, I don’t think it was a super big deal that the original person left her to go home with another woman, because she didn’t seem too much in danger, just emotionally hurt. She even told him to go on and hike ahead of her. In the worst case, there are plenty other people who would help her if she were to roll an ankle, have car trouble, or something. And she had cell service the whole time. To me, this isn’t that different than getting up and leaving somebody in the middle of a jog in a nice neighborhood that you arrived at separately, if you had a fight with them. The biggest difference being the response time of EMS.
From reading these other comments, though, a lot of people seem to feel like being left alone on a hike would be more stressful than being left alone in the front country, which I don’t really understand, but I can accept that people would feel like that. I would hate to be abandoned at a party or at a bar, for instance – It’s not somewhere I’m comfortable at all. And I’d much rather walk back to my car alone on a popular well marked trail in the daytime.
The example of the woman at Delicate Arch is more confusing since it seems she actually was having a medical issue of some kind giving her vertigo. I don’t think the two should have separated in that case, but it’s really hard to decipher what actually happened in that situation, Especially having just one side of the story.
The example that involved the woman dying in the mountains is wildly different to me. I really don’t like how much male ego the guy seems to have in that he had abandoned previous partner on a different trip and how he had declined a helicopter rescue for both of them when they were first in trouble. In my opinion, he killed the person he was with by doing that.
There seems to be no world to me in which the situation on the angel falls trail is at all comparable to the gross negligence in that last example.
I live in an area that is densely wooded and has many, many hiking trails of various difficulty. It is always taught here that you need to be aware and ready for danger on any hiking trail, no matter how popular.
Wild animals and falls are absolutely a thing that makes being in the wilderness more dangerous than say a soccer field as you used for an example.
I don’t think it’s ever ok to leave a hiking partner except in cases of emergency when there’s only 2 people in the group and especially not because one of those people is being a jerk and won’t explain why or what they’re feeling or want to do. The lack of communication from the men in these situations outlined by the article is astounding especially for those situations.
I think we will have to agree to disagree on some points due to different backgrounds. On extremely crowded trails near me, danger from wildlife is just not common where I’m from. If I was in California, maybe I would have to worry about mountain lions, but even they do not like crowds, so I’m not sure what wild animals you are considering a risk. I think probably the most risky animal would be something you could get a bee sting and anaphylaxis from, which would be more dangerous in the back country, I agree. But it doesn’t seem significantly different if you are hiking alone and the person right behind you calls 911 in 20 seconds when they reach you, or if the person right next to you calls 911.
Some trails have fall potential and some don’t. It would be a very different thing to leave somebody to attempt half dome on their own versus a nice hike in the woods, even when going up to a pleasant summit.
I’ve heard kayakers say never boat alone, but where I live at least the same thing is not true for hiking, mountain biking or even rock climbing for that matter. Maybe that’s a rule of thumb in your area that just doesn’t exist here. I would definitely never ever swim alone, though. The common training here for hikers is to carry the ten outdoor essentials even on easy hikes, and practice leave no trace, including step 1: Always let somebody know where you’re going and when you’ll come back.
To me the biggest issue here is communication. If I was expecting to meet my hiking partner back at the car, but when I got there they had driven off already, I would be really miffed, not knowing what happened. It would be even worse if their car was there, but they were not there.
On the other hand, if they told me, hey, I’ve got to leave early, I’m going to head back to the trailhead now, and I said, okay, fine, I’ll see you next time and finish the hike on my own. I don’t see any problem doing that. To me, there’s no set in-stone rule against hiking alone, the way there is for swimming alone or boating alone, because it is just not as risky, and, in fact, is quite routine. That’s why it’s hard for me to call most back country areas near me ‘wilderness’, because they are so close to civilization, so dominated by human impacts that there is just so little added risk that you wouldn’t have in the front country.
I’m referring to bears, wolves, coyotes, and wildcats primarily. California is similar. There’s large swaths of the US that are still very much wilderness even if there is a human population nearby.
So yes, perhaps our different perspectives is what is putting us at such odds over what a big deal this is. I would be very upset at a man who is visibly pissed off at me but won’t communicate and keeps pushing ahead of me without saying what he wants.
