Climber charged with murder after leaving girlfriend near top of Austria’s highest peak

tThirteen months after his girlfriend froze to death 50 meters from the top of Austria’s highest peak, climber Thomas Plamberger will stand trial today for involuntary manslaughter in Innsbruck, Austria. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Plamberger, 36, allegedly left her companion Kerstin Gurtner, 33, near Grossglockner’s 12,461-foot summit on Jan. 19, 2025, in stormy, subfreezing conditions and descended the mountain alone to seek help when she felt too exhausted and disoriented to continue. He died there of hypothermia amid 45 mph winds and temperatures of around −8 °C (17.6 °F).

The tragedy has sparked debate in the mountaineering and outdoor community about the importance of knowing when to throw in the towel, as well as the ethical and, in some cases, legal responsibilities of a trip leader in such a situation.

Accusations of gross negligence

Prosecutors accused Plamberger of making nine critical errors that led to Gurtner’s death. These included starting their climb two hours later than the recommended window, failing to warn Gurtner that his splitboard and soft snowboard boots would be inappropriate for the planned route, failing to flag down a passing rescue helicopter when conditions began to deteriorate, ignoring or silencing phone calls from police rescuers, and leaving Gurtner exposed and without the survival equipment the couple had brought with them.

«The accused left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic and disoriented about 50 meters below the summit cross of Grossglockner. The woman froze to death,» the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. «Before dropping his girlfriend off at around 2:00 a.m., he did not use his bivy bag or the available emergency blankets to protect her from further cooling, nor did he remove her heavy backpack and splitboard.»

As a more experienced climber, Plamberger could be held legally responsible for her death under Austrian law and could face three years in prison if convicted.

Plamberger’s defense has disputed the allegations, saying that he and Gurtner had planned the climb together, believed they were well prepared and in adequate shape, and that Gurtner had ultimately urged him to leave her and seek help at the nearest mountain hut.

Chronology of events

The pair reportedly set out to climb Grossglockner at 6:45 a.m. on January 18. They were still climbing towards the summit around 10:30 pm that night, when weather conditions had begun to deteriorate.

The pair’s headlights were visible to rescuers in the valley, and a police helicopter was sent to their aid between 10.30pm and 10.50pm. However, Plamberger’s defense team has said that neither he nor Gurtner were in danger at the time and did not warn the helicopter when it passed overhead. The defense claims that weather conditions and Gurtner’s health began to deteriorate after the helicopter left.

(To contextualize, as Owen Clarke has pointed out in a excellent analysis (As shown in the Climbing.com case, helicopter rescue is not covered by Austrian public insurance and can cost those rescued thousands of dollars in some situations.)

Plamberger missed several phone calls from police before calling them back at 12:35 a.m. Police said the content of that call was unclear, but Plamberger says he hung up believing rescuers knew the severity of his situation and that a rescue was necessary.

The climbers kept moving to stay warm until Gurtner could no longer continue. Then they hunkered down until 2 a.m. on the 19th, when Plamberger says he and Gurtner «mutually agreed» that he should go down to the cabin alone to get help.

He did not receive several more calls from the police during this time and only called rescuers again at approximately 3:30 am, about 90 minutes into his solo descent to seek help. He informed them that he had left Gurtner alone, but that conditions at that time made a helicopter rescue impossible. Rescuers found Gurtner dead when they arrived at her location around 10 a.m. the next day.

Gurtner’s mother defended Plamberger, calling the trial a «witch hunt.» He has also criticized the prosecution and media’s depiction of his daughter as incompetent, stating that Kerstin was an accomplished climber in her own right.

Cover image: The Grossglockner. Otto Schemmel

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