SCHOTTY BOY, as he is known online, is a hiking evangelist. He posts dispatches from the Scottish Highlands—moody, misty pictures of streams, glens, lochs and hills—to his more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok. In these posts, he is usually toting sensible walking gear such as a backpack, flask and an anorak. Sometimes, and inexplicably, he is topless.
Why Gen Z hikers keep getting lost up mountains (Unsplash)
He is one of many young people discovering the pleasures of the great outdoors. (As one TikTok video puts it: “Texting is cool, but hiking together is cooler.”) Millions of posts extol the virtues of this cheap, accessible form of exercise. Some influencers recommend scenic routes, way stops and refuges. Apps such as AllTrails make it easy to find footpaths and tracks. This is especially helpful for a generation more accustomed to reading from a phone screen than a map.
The problem is that fans follow in influencers’ footsteps without fully understanding what an excursion in the wilderness might entail. (Topless treks, for instance, are inadvisable, especially in cold, wet conditions.) Excitable explorers can walk into trouble. In the Scottish Highlands, the number of mountaineering incidents involving 17- to-25 year-olds has nearly quadrupled since 2022. In 2018 just 15% of people rescued in the Highlands were 17- to 25-year-olds. Last year 25% were. It was not always like this: in the early 2010s, it was middle-aged hikers who required the most assistance.
Nor is this just a Scottish trend. American adventurers aged between 18 and 25 have grown as a share of those needing help. France, Italy and Switzerland have also seen surges in SOS calls from youngsters in recent years.
Rescuers point out that more people of all ages are hiking. The “Instagram effect”, says Ludovic Richard from France’s mountain-safety observatory, is such that young walkers go to perilous lengths to take a photo at a beauty spot. Some have none of the gear and not much common sense. In December two walkers in their 20s were rescued from Britain’s second-highest mountain in “feels-like” temperatures of -15°C, wearing trainers and tracksuit bottoms (rather than thermals and walking boots). Kev Mitchell, a veteran rescuer in Scotland, was called out to a different pair of 20-somethings in the Highlands without a compass and proper jackets. Without his help, he reckons, they would have died.
The benefits of hiking are numerous. America’s National Park Service promotes it as “a great whole-body workout—from head to toe and everything in between.” As well as strengthening muscles, bones and hearts, walking in nature is good for your mental health. Gen Z has the right idea. They just need to prove they can, in fact, walk the walk.
