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 StĂĽdlgrat 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.
Maybe it’s just me, but when it’s -4 degrees F outside I usually opt to NOT climb a 12,000 foot mountain.
My wife and I took a train ride in late September (a few years back) on the Durango and Silverton. I packed a tote bag filled with winter gear. She asked why, and I said, “just in case.” I knew that Silverton was at 10,000 feet, so I knew it wouldn’t be as balmy as it was in Durango that morning (at 4500 feet).
Sure enough, we got off the train and were greeted by wind, snow, and 30 degree temps. We suited up and were fine.
Others on the train weren’t so well prepared. Some of them rode up to the top wearing shorts, tank tops and flip flops.
If you want to do an Alpine ascent you start at daybreak. And you get back down by early afternoon.
They were both totally unprepared, started too late, and paid for their rashness. At least she did … tragic actions….
He isn’t responsible for her. She decided to undertake a deadly risk and paid the price. “He could have carried her down the mountain”? Insane. He could barely even get himself down. How the hell do you climb down a mountain carrying another person? You watch too many shitty movies.
They lacked proper equipment and had zero chance of a positive experience. He should be praised for managing to survive. She was smaller, weaker and apparently stupider. So she didnt make it.
I hate myself for thinking the same thing.
Dopes, both of them.