Generation SOS: Why young people are increasingly being rescued from mountains

A stroll through Pepper Steps’ social media posts reveals all the hallmarks of a quintessential Gen Z influencer. But rather than showing makeup or skincare routines, this 27-year-old’s “Get Ready With Me” walkthroughs explore how to pack the perfect backpack and essential life-hack videos detail how to survive a bear encounter. A full-time nature content creator known online simply as Pepper, the California-based “nature nerd” and her 550,000 strong-Instagram following are indicative of shifting demographics in the great outdoors, as young people increasingly make a pastime of humanity’s oldest physical activity: walking. Traversing the trendiest mountain trails and documenting the experience is now a well-trodden path for online material, with hashtags for “hiking” and “hiking adventures” used up to 110 million and 11.8 million times on Instagram and TikTok respectively.