Climber is convicted over girlfriend’s death near Austria’s highest peak

A hiker is shown on the Grossglockner mountain on Oct. 8, 2008. (AP / Kerstin Joensson)

INNSBRUCK, Austria -- 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, local media reported.

The case is unusual because while climbing accidents are common, prosecutions over them are rare, even in situations like this one where various 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 euro (US$11,100) fine for causing her death in January 2025 by gross negligence, an offense 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.

After a day’s climbing in which they fell far behind schedule, the woman was exhausted and unable to go on about 50 meters (yards) 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 other side of the summit. The equipment stayed in her rucksack.

A short call to the mountain police did not trigger a search since the police said he did not make clear they needed rescuing, and he failed to answer calls back or WhatsApp messages asking if they needed help. The defendant said his phone had been in airplane mode to save battery.

“What I want to say is that I am so terribly sorry,” Thomas P., who pleaded not guilty, told the court.

(Reporting by Dave Graham)