An amateur climber has been found guilty of gross negligent manslaughter after his girlfriend froze to death on Austria’s highest mountain.
The 37-year-old Austrian man, named only as Thomas P in line with privacy laws, was given a five-month suspended sentence and fined €9,400 (£8,200) by a court in Innsbruck on Thursday over the death of his girlfriend, named as Kerstin G.
The 33-year-old died of hypothermia on Grossglockner mountain on 19 January last year.
The unusual case caught the attention of social media and has raised questions about the extent of legal liability in the mountains, which climbers generally explore at their own risk.
The Innsbruck Public Prosecutors’ Office claimed Thomas P should be regarded as the responsible guide because he, unlike his girlfriend, was already highly experienced with alpine high altitude tours and had planned the tour.
It accused him of several errors including starting the climb too late in the day, not making an emergency call before nightfall and allowing her to use unsuitable equipment.
Defence lawyer Kurt Jelinek argued that all the accusations were unfounded and denied the defendant had a de facto leadership role during the climb, Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported.
What happened?
The court heard that the couple were around 50m below the summit of the Grossglockner mountain on a freezing winter’s night when Kerstin G was exhausted and unable to go any further.
The prosecution alleged that although the couple were unable to continue their journey from approximately 8.50pm, Thomas P did not make an emergency call and also did not give any distress signals when a police helicopter flew over around two hours later.
At around 2am, the defendant left his girlfriend exposed to strong winds without wrapping her in an emergency blanket or bivouac bag, which she had in her backpack, in an attempt to go and get help from a shelter on the mountain.
When asked why this was the case, he told the court the situation had been particularly stressful.
After calling mountain police at around 3.30am, a search was not triggered as the man did not make it clear the couple needed rescuing, and he failed to answer calls or WhatsApp messages asking if they needed help.
The defendant said his phone had been in airplane mode to save battery.
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Thomas P, who pleaded not guilty, told the court that he was “so terribly sorry”.
He said that the couple had made all their decisions together and had planned the climbs together, claiming his girlfriend’s mountaineering knowledge wasn’t far short of his own.
During questioning he claimed that he was already suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion and had secured Kerstin G to a rock with a sling before climbing on to get help, newspaper Der Standard reported.
He said when he turned back to lie down next to her she had told him to “go now, go!” which he claimed had “saved his life”.
Ex-girlfriend testimony
During the trial, prosecutors called the defendant’s ex-girlfriend as a witness.
She said they too had climbed Grossglockner in 2023, and said after an argument over the route he left her alone at night, crying as her headlamp ran out of battery.
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‘I do not see you as a murderer’
The presiding judge, Norbert Hofer, who is an experienced mountaineer, ruled Thomas P should have realised his girlfriend would not be able to complete the climb well before they ran into difficulty.
He said she would almost certainly have survived “if the appropriate measures had been taken”, for example making an emergency call earlier or turning back.
He added that he was a better mountaineer than his girlfriend by “galaxies”, and that she had placed herself in his care.
But he said he did not see him “as a murderer” or as “cold-hearted”, acknowledging that he had gone to fetch help.
The verdict can be appealed.