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.
Also the term was coined in the 1800s. Clearly it has happened enough to warrant a name if it’s been around that long.
If it took from the 1800’s to societ creating the internet and connecting a popluations of 8 billion people in 2026 for the term to catch on. It was not happening much and it does not happen much we know that. There are all sorts of terms im sure from the 1800’s that were niche enough no one knows them now. Maybe something will bring it forward. There is nothing wrong with the term itself and its and articles like these are not uncommon. As I said in another part of my, apparently, very constroversial take. There was a section in the sunday paper that might have an article like this but the title would not be this internet wierd click baity thing.
Just because you hadn’t heard the term before now doesn’t mean no one heard of it.