Hiking alone as a woman

[HeidiHiker]

I'm hiking more than 15 years, both alone, with friends, with Ramblers club. I enjoy all equally. I've done a few navigation courses, can use a map and compass.

There's a couple of routes I like to do alone, approx a four-hour hike - sometimes I meet others and sometimes not. I would only ever do solo hikes in good weather and I know these routes so well at this stage, I've never needed to use my map and compass.

However, a few people have expressed to me how dangerous this is. I do my solo hikes on trails/ tracks and do the more difficult ones when I'm with others. I enjoy these, the peace and quiet.

My question is:
AIBU - stop hiking alone
AINBU - continue these hikes I'm familiar with, alone, continue doing more remote ones with others

I did a lot of long solo walks last year, training for an event (15-20 miles). Only in the Peak District but quite remote. Worst that happens was a patronising comment about my kit from men young enough to be my kids.

I took all the usual precautions, map, phone, first aid kit, check in at the end. I'm sure the technology is available to share your location with a friend in real time if it mattered.

It's one of those situations where hiding away and not getting your exercise/time in nature/headspace is likely to do you more harm than the imagined small risk of an attack. A slip or trip or getting lost in bad weather are much more common incidents in hillwalking, which you can mitigate.

I think what I will add to my own post is that, no matter what the statistics say, no matter who you are most likely to be harmed by (partner/family member), or if you are more likely to be assaulted by a man if you are a man, it will not change how you feel about personal safety as an individual. I believe the fear comes from your own life experience, or the experiences of people you know, or your resilience and personal trauma. It does not make one person more hysterical than the next if they have the fear and you do not. If you are not fearful, then that is great—live your life to the full and do not restrict yourself.

Please don't scoff at those who have to restrict themselves; it's a difficult way to live sometimes. 💐

In my experience, the people who tell me I'd be unsafe hiking (and camping) alone are often the same people who tell me I'm being silly or putting myself at risk for going to the cinema alone or driving long distances alone, going on holiday alone etc. And in most cases, they are people who don't ever do it themselves. For me, they're speaking from fear, not from experience. All the stats tell me that I'm more at risk from attacks from random men in a town centre on a Saturday night, and I'd feel far more uncomfortable there than I would out in the Peak District on my own. But then that's my fear taking precedence over my experience I suppose - I rarely end up in town on my own at night, but have very often been out in the countryside on my own and have never felt unsafe.
I really truly feel that if a man wants to attack a woman he's not going to go to the effort of driving out into the Peak District, parking in some random spot and walking several miles up hill on the off chance that a random solo woman might come past that he can attack. If he wants to attack someone, he just has to hang around in a dark alley somewhere, or attack one of the many women he knows at work, or hop in a lift with a woman in a car park, which would be much quicker and easier.

I doubt they hang around remote routes on the off chance of a lone female coming along but that doesn’t mean they wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity if they happened upon a lone female with no one else around for miles.
I know the risks are small but the consequences would be devastating. I would irrationally feel that it was partly my fault for putting myself in that vulnerable position.

40 years alone hiking here.

I'd be out very remotely for ten hours a day.

Leave a note of where you intend to go.

Have the proper kit, proper boots, some high calorie snacks like dates.

And a map. A paper one, and know how to read it as your phone will die any second in the cold.

There's a risk hiking in isolated areas alone but it's the same for men - risk of falling, sudden illness etc. I've hiked alone in rural areas hundreds of times but I did have a fairly bitey dog (actually he was a softy but he knew how to snarl)

I'm sorry you had that experience Comedycentral, I imagine it takes a great deal of courage to do a lot things that you once gave no thought to. I'd hope no-one would scoff at anyone in your situation or feeling unsure. I hope one day you feel able to hike in a way that you feel safe and enjoyable.

I feel like this is such an American concern even though it's not & could happen....

Personally It wouldn't bother me at all & I would think twice about seeing another woman out & about but get where others are coming from

I've been flashed at three times - on a train, outside a Tesco Express in London, and in an urban park.

I've hiked up 127 Wainwrights so far, a lot of them solo. I feel safer in the fells than I do off them. Away from the honeypot routes sometimes I don't see anyone for eight or nine hours.

I feel most at risk when cycling home from work by people who can't drive a car properly. I'll continue to hike solo and complete my Wainwrights.

*wouldn't that should say

I have a male friend who does a lot of solo hiking and sometimes during the week when the routes are quieter. He has a few stories of meeting people he felt wary of- turning up at a bothy and feeling unsafe and having to walk back through the dark was one such experience. Another was reaching a misty summit to find a man roaming around in his underwear. I think it's a bit unwise to assume because it's a wholesome pastime that everyone who does it is nice - the world is full of weirdos!

I have hiked alone in the Lake District and love it. I did once get in a situation where the weather turned. I wasn't in danger but I did feel quite frightened as alone. I turned back. I definitely would not go up in the snow.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/all-is-well/202406/ive-met-the-bear-and-i-would-still-choose-it#:~:text=Women%20are%20debating%20if%20they,my%20behavior%20shows%20I%20am.

The question of whether a solo female hiker would rather meet a bear or a man in the woods was briefly an internet trend last year.

I'd choose the bear over the man too given bear attacks are rarer then being attacked by a man but the chances of being attacked by any random man in a wood are lower than being attacked by someone you know.

To be honest @MrsMaudeLebowski that could very well be my friend's husband! She dared him to streak around the top of a very well known Peak District mountain for his 50th!

I'd be interested to know if the risks of being assaulted by a stranger outside the home are vastly different in different places. Given that women and girls, are attacked near their homes, on their way to work, at work, on the tube, at a dance class, walking their dogs or sitting on their own doorstep, I'd say hiking is probably a very low risk activity in context. I think there is very little one can do to mitigate the (small but serious) chance of a stranger assault so we should go ahead and live our lives as we choose with reasonable precautions.

Thank you. I would love to rewind the clock and be carefree again but I have made lots of great progress over the years. I didn't post to try to limit anyone; I just wanted to stick up for those of us who have that awful fear restricting us. In my real life, I encourage my friends, male and female, to live their lives to the fullest and try not to restrict themselves.

Maybe worth letting people know where you plan to walk, and how long the hike will take etc. plenty of people go on solo dog walks.

I think you are more at risk of an attack from a cow than a person but saying that I did find myself walking alone in the woods and stumbled upon a traveller camp with a lot of males and dogs sitting along the route drinking. It made me feel incredibly vulnerable and a bit shaken for quite a while looking over my shoulder. It wasn’t a pleasant experience but needless to say I don’t do that route anymore. I still hike alone.

Cows are pretty dangerous - stats are a bit challenging but the Guardian says cows probably killed more people in the UK than dogs over a five year period

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/12/the-hell-and-horror-of-cow-attacks-i-told-my-husband-to-leave-me-to-die

You sound like you already take reasonable precautions. Walking alone in beautiful countryside connecting with nature is a wonderful thing to do for yourself - enjoy

I haven’t selected either as I hike quite happily alone regardless of remoteness. I know lots of women don’t like to walk alone but I’d never go anywhere if I felt like that.

Thanks

I've always done whatever I want and don't feel vulnerable as a woman. For example, I've always walked alone late at night, including through woods, etc.
I'd happily hike alone. I think my only concern about isolated locations is that I might break my leg or something and be stuck if there's no mobile reception.

I got flashed out on a crowded early evening tube on the circle line. Never had any issue out walking in the countryside and I've been doing that for over 50 years.

Yes exactly. @IItsalwaysfools why is it idiotic to think that when the opposite is true?