More than a year after a 33-year-old woman froze to death on Austria’s highest mountain, her boyfriend goes on trial on Thursday accused of gross negligent manslaughter.
Kerstin G died of hypothermia on a mountain climbing trip to the Grossglockner that went horribly wrong. Her boyfriend is accused of leaving her unprotected and exhausted close to the summit in stormy conditions in the early hours of 19 January 2025, while he went to get help.
The trial has sparked interest and debate, not just in Austria but in mountain climbing communities far beyond its borders.
That’s a tough call. Sounds to me that it was reckless to climb the mountain under those conditions but both decided to go ahead. Nevertheless, the reaction of the accused to the emergency is bad. Calling the police and then putting his phone on silent makes little sense. Leaving her to “get help” is of course futile.
Arguably the extreme weather could have altered his mind and he made irrational decisions because of hypoxia. But you take responsibility of the actions you take after you chose to drink alcohol, so I presume atleast to some extent for known and consistent conditions that should have been accounted for you take responsibility for the potential altered mind state.
Yes, I think it’s important to consider how extreme the situation was. You mentioned the external conditions. It’s also fair to say that it’s difficult to do the right thing in an emergency of this magnitude. We know he handled it badly but we’re not freezing on a mountain at midnight with our exhausted girlfriend.
The article states, that they passed a place called Frühstücksplatz, that literally translates to “breakfast point” at 13:30.
To me, that alone would be a red flag. But then again, it was stated, that going for a night climb, was the intent of the trip. And of course a night climb to the Grossglockner in the midst of winter is a reckless ordeal in the first place. That should have been obvious for both of them.
It’s an interesting question who is responsible over another and there are some details in this story, that really make you wonder what was going on there. But not nearly enough detail to judge any of it.