‘Alpine divorce’ explained: The tragic story behind the viral phrase

Hopefully you never find yourself left behind by a partner while hiking a mountain or abandoned in the woods. If you do, you might be a victim of an “alpine divorce.”

The phrase has gained traction on social media in recent weeks following news of a climber’s guilty verdict after he left his girlfriend behind on a hike, where she froze to death on Austria’s highest mountain.

The phrase is said to have originated from the 1893 short story An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr, in...