“Hot girl hiking” is the kind of phrase that evokes strong emotions for women-identifying members of the outdoor community.
Searching the term on TikTok turns up heaps of videos showcasing—primarily—young women wearing—primarily—matching sets experiencing a highly aestheticized version of nature. Vanity Fair dubbed Lady Gaga’s outdoor traipse in the Hamptons in a pair of Christian Louboutin stilettos a “hike,” and it seems to fall into the hot girl hiking bucket. When actress Vanessa Hudgens hiked in a maxi skirt and platform slides, it did the same.
However, “niche outdoor influencers put on a different kind of messaging and tone” when it comes to hot girl hiking, Teaghan Skulszki, a social media manager for the brand GearJunkie and former staffer at Outside, told me. “Outdoor influencers are more like, ‘These are my Patagonia baggies that I wear every summer. This is the gear that I’m buying. Here is my favorite trail; hot girls leave no trace.’” They use the aesthetics of the hot girl, Skulszki told me, to help people new to hiking or less-informed about the ways of the trail to convey advice about preparedness and outdoor stewardship philosophies.
So, what exactly is a hot girl hike then?
What Is Hot Girl Hiking?
A successor of “hot girl walking,” hot girl hiking seems to just mean feeling hot—and as a result, good—while going on a hike, and that can often mean wearing clothing that emphasizes “hotness,” like crop tops, biker shorts, sports bras, matching sets, and skorts. And because documentation of hot girl hikes ultimately lives on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, the version of the outdoors they offer is highly edited and optimized for visual viewing pleasure.
But, one hiking friend thoughtfully wrote to me, hot girl hiking can also be an “emotional aesthetic,” in which a woman gives herself permission to do something like hike alone and experience bliss just for herself and by herself: “unobserved, undisturbed, and unbelievably hot.”
So, a hot girl hike can be found in a set of clothes. A hot girl hike can be attained as a state of mind. It can be a very empowering thing. Or it can be completely disempowering. It depends on who you ask.
That’s because how a person should look while outside is a source of tension the outdoor community has spent decades reckoning with. From race to gender to ability to gear, using appearance to police access to and experiences of nature has a long history. The idealized version of the outdoorsman from times past essentially excluded women and people of color from the vision of who belonged outside.
Newly created pressure to be “hot” while outside can either become a new gate that is kept, or it can offer a new way to experience the outdoors for people who haven’t traditionally felt included. When I talked to women for this story, it became clear that both outcomes are keenly felt when the hot girl hike gets mentioned.
How Do People Feel About Hot Girl Hiking?
At a children’s birthday party, I floated the phrase to a group of moms, several of whom have deep and longstanding ties to getting outside. One of them, a former senior leader at REI, was taken aback by the expression. “When I was at REI, our whole mission was to make the outdoors feel like a place that existed for everybody,” she told me. How does creating pressure to be “hot,” she wondered, help make the outdoors feel that way? Another friend wrote to me that hot girl hiking made her “instantly mad” because “women already obsessively police our own bodies and faces.” Our “hobbies,” she continued, should be allowed to go “unperceived.”
Mariana Morales, a 27-year-old avid hiker who relocated to Seattle from Queretaro City, Mexico, told me that she “honestly doesn’t believe in having the fittest body or most expensive gear to go and hike with friends,” and falling too deeply into social media trends can create ideals around consumerism when in reality, our stewardship of the outdoors and the peace it can bring should be the highest values.
On the flip side, Leah Greenberg, a senior geology major and president of the University of Kentucky’s hiking club, said her whole goal for her university’s club was to create a space where people of any background and any ability level feel like the outdoors can become a place for them “for free.” And Skulszki was careful to remind me that even when it gets hard, our job as lovers and stewards of the outdoors should be to bring more people into our group, “teaching” and “opening up the space to make it more inclusive” rather than rejecting someone’s interest based on their aesthetic.
Plus, outdoor brands are making it easier than ever to have a “girly” sensibility in the hiking clothes on offer.
OK, but Hiking in Stilettos?
I can make peace with the idea that if hot girl hiking is increasing the number and kinds of people who feel like the outdoors is for them, then that’s a good thing. I can’t accept the idea of treating improper footwear choices neutrally, though.
“I would not encourage wearing stilettos or platform shoes to hike. The initial concern is safety. Walking on uneven terrain … requires the smaller stabilizing muscles in your ankles to become more active to maintain a neutral position and balance. They can also fatigue more quickly due to the uneven and unpredictable terrain. This increases the risk of ankle sprain and strains,” Dr. Emily Reasnover, PT, DPT, told me when I asked her about the realities of navigating uneven terrain in stilettos. Put simply, she said, “I would recommend a supportive shoe for hiking.”
So if hot girl hiking isn’t your thing, please don’t feel pressure to go on one. I shan’t be hot girl hiking, aesthetically or emotionally. But if it is, just remember to wear supportive shoes, pack water, and leave no trace. The outdoors really are for all of us.
The post Is “Hot Girl Hiking” Empowering or Just Another Way to Police Women’s Bodies? appeared first on Outside Online.
