Climber convicted after girlfriend freezes to death on Austrian mountain
Man gets a suspended sentence and a fine for girlfriend’s death during a climb on the country’s highest mountain
An Austrian court late on Thursday found a 37-year-old amateur mountaineer guilty of manslaughter over his girlfriend’s death of cold near Austria’s highest summit after he left her to fetch help when she could not go on.
The case is unusual because while climbing accidents are common, prosecutions over them were rare, even in situations like this one where a series of mistakes were made.
The court in the western city of Innsbruck handed the Austrian man a five-month suspended prison sentence and a €9,400 (US$11,100) fine for causing her death in January 2025 by gross negligence, an offence that carries a maximum prison sentence of three years.
The trial has raised questions about the extent of legal liability in the high mountains, an inherently dangerous environment that climbers generally explore at their own risk.
What I want to say is that I am so terribly sorry
After a day’s climbing in which they fell far behind schedule, the 33-year-old woman was exhausted and unable to go on about 50 metres below the summit of the Grossglockner mountain on a freezing winter’s night, the court heard.
The defendant, identified as Thomas P, left his girlfriend Kerstin G exposed to strong winds without wrapping her in her emergency blanket or bivouac bag for reasons he could not fully explain, to fetch help in a shelter on the mountain. The equipment stayed in her rucksack.