Posted on 12/20/2025 4:04:20 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
A man in Austria was charged in the death of his girlfriend after leaving her behind, in a case testing ideas of freedom and responsibility in the mountains.
The Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain, seen from the nearby Sonnblick Observatory.Credit...Kerstin Joensson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A distant webcam captured the moments the couple’s hiking trip started to unravel.
The pair, a boyfriend and girlfriend, were nearing the summit of Grossglockner, the tallest mountain in the Austrian Alps, when their lights appeared on its dark peak.
Around midnight, the man said, his girlfriend was struck by sudden exhaustion and could not continue. He said the two made a contentious, if not uncommon, decision: He would leave her behind and continue alone to find help.
Hours later, he was out of harm’s way, and the woman was dead. Rescuers found her frozen body later that morning not far from the summit, officials say.
Now, nearly a year later, the authorities have accused the man of making a series of mistakes that led to his girlfriend’s death, charging him this month with gross negligent manslaughter.
The unusual case has roiled the mountaineering community and could have ramifications for Austria’s large alpine tourism industry. Mountaineering in Austria has surged in popularity in recent years, and experts say underprepared visitors are taking more risks and accidents are reaching record highs.
The case has also provoked a broader debate in Austria, as questions of personal responsibility collide with a long-established legal tradition that requires people to protect others and avert danger.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Traipsing around a mountain isn't the same thing as taking a walk at a city park.
,,, I just got off a phonecall with Greta Thunberg. She said this could only be blamed on climate change.
Ping!...........Oh, as I go a wandering, along the mountain path................
Unless we’re talking about children, women NEVER take responsibility. Whatever happened, it’s the man’s fault. Hell, Phil Donahue made a fortune telling women that men were always at fault.
It’s just the way the world works. You can go all the way back to Adam and Eve where God asked Eve why she bit the fruit and her immediate response is to deflect the blame to Adam. You can look it up.
Well, yeah, the dog had plenty of frozen meat.
They say that Mount Washington in New Hampshire (6000 ft) is the deadliest mountain in the U.S. and one of the deadliest in the world. The problem it is always one climatic zone colder on top than at the base, it is near densely populated urban areas, New York and Boston, specifically, with a lot of warm meat yearning to be frozen. People start up it on a warm day in October with sneakers and maybe a sweater, get lost and freeze to death. Cell phones have cut down on fatalities, but the New Hampshire authories want to charge people for rescues occasioned by utter recklessness.
Why didn’t he fashion some sort of sledge and bring her down the mountain with him?
He probably didn’t have the capability to get her down without her participation. Maybe they could’ve been better prepared with a rescue beacon or something, assuming such things are legal in Austria. Maybe stay and try to look after her. But if there was no other way to get help and he couldn’t get her down, It’s tragic, but it happens. Also, assuming the woman is over 18, she’s an adult, and she made the decision to climb a mountain..
Similar to the rope cutting dilemma
33-year-old Kerstin Gurtner and her more experienced boyfriend, 39-year-old Thomas Plamberger attempted a winter ascent of Grossglockner (Austria's highest peak at 12,461 feet via the challenging Stüdlgrat route. They started late on the morning of January 18, 2025, faced extreme conditions (temperatures around -4 F and strong winds), and reached near the summit that night.
Around midnight, Gurtner became severely exhausted and hypothermic, unable to continue. Plamberger left her unprotected about 200 feet below the summit around 2 a.m. on January 19 to descend and seek help. She froze to death overnight, and her body was recovered the next morning.
The couple did not carry substantial survival gear suitable for an unplanned overnight bivouac in extreme winter conditions on Grossglockner. They DID have emergency blankets (aluminum foil rescue blankets) and at least one bivouac sack (a lightweight emergency shelter bag, sometimes described as a "bivouac sleeping bag"); basic climbing equipment (crampons, ice axes, harnesses, rope, headlamps, etc.), and Kerstin used a splitboard with soft snowboard boots (deemed unsuitable by prosecutors).
They did not have proper sleeping bags, stove or cooking equipment, significant food supplies for extended survival (reports focus on inadequate emergency provisions overall).
She's hypothermic, exhausted and he leaves her? He could have carried her down the mountain a bit to get into some trees. Didn't he know you strip down and go skin-to-skin to warm the hypothermic person, get in the bivouac sack and cover yourself with the aluminum survival blanket? Tear off some fir or pine tree boughs and cover yourself in them. You do NOT leave that person behind.
Adam also deflected blame.
If she would have walked out seeking help, and he were found dead, the story would be about her bravery and survival story. She’d probably get a medal and a book deal.
Because otherwise I am not seeing it.
well played
Look at that mountain. Very steep and not a tree in sight. And he may not have had the strength.
I suspect he pushed her beyond her limits determined to reach the summit.
She didn’t have the courage or self confidence to turn around and go back by herself.
Tragic incident that should not have happened.
“...People start up it on a warm day in October with sneakers and maybe a sweater, get lost and freeze to death.”
I’ve seen people start hikes woefully unprepared. I climbed 3,000 ft to the top of Yosemite Falls (on the trail, not rock climbing) in January 1975. It was a freakish warm winter and going up to 70 F that day. I left in the early morning darkness and was fully prepared to survive a couple days if something happened. When I headed down around 11 am, the sky was cloudless, it was warm, and people were coming up in tee-shirts, shorts, sandals, no water. I couldn’t believe it. I was no mountaineer, but knew mountains are unforgiving. I’ve seen the same thing on Mt. Lassen in Northern California.
Incident:
In January 2025, Thomas Plamberger and his girlfriend Kerstin Gurtner were on an overnight winter ascent of the Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain.
Gurtner, who was a novice at high-altitude climbing, became exhausted and hypothermic near the summit. Plamberger reportedly left her to go for help.
Allegations: Prosecutors have charged Plamberger with gross negligent manslaughter, alleging he made several critical errors.
He allegedly failed to make an emergency call for hours, did not signal a passing helicopter, and later put his phone on silent, missing calls from rescue services.
He also allegedly left Gurtner in an exposed spot without using available emergency gear like a bivouac sack or rescue blankets to protect her from the cold.
Incident:
In January 2025, Thomas Plamberger and his girlfriend Kerstin Gurtner were on an overnight winter ascent of the Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain.
Gurtner, who was a novice at high-altitude climbing, became exhausted and hypothermic near the summit. Plamberger reportedly left her to go for help.
Allegations: Prosecutors have charged Plamberger with gross negligent manslaughter, alleging he made several critical errors.
He allegedly failed to make an emergency call for hours, did not signal a passing helicopter, and later put his phone on silent, missing calls from rescue services.
He also allegedly left Gurtner in an exposed spot without using available emergency gear like a bivouac sack or rescue blankets to protect her from the cold.
True! Thank you for pointing that out.
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