An amateur mountaineer in Austria has been found guilty of manslaughter over the death of his girlfriend.
She froze to death near the peak of the Grossglockner mountain, Austria’s highest summit, after he left her alone to fetch help.
The court in the Austrian city of Innsbruck gave Thomas P. a five-month suspended sentence on Thursday and fined him €9,400 ($11,100) for gross negligence.
The case is unusual because while climbing accidents are common, prosecutions over them are rare. (moved this up from near bottom)
Series of mistakes on mountain ended in girlfriend’s death
The court heard how the couple had fallen behind in their schedule when climbing the Grossglockner in January 2025.
The woman had become exhausted and was unable to keep going, some 50 meters (54 yards) beneath the summit.
After midnight, Thomas P. left the 33-year-old woman alone to find help, and she froze to death in bad weather just below the 3,798-meter (12,460-foot) summit.
Prosecutors said the man made a series of serious mistakes.
The woman was exposed to strong winds, and he hadn’t wrapped her in an emergency blanket or bivouac bag, which she had in her backpack.
When asked why he had failed to do that, he told the court the situation had been particularly stressful.
In a call to mountain police, Thomas P. also didn’t make clear that the couple needed rescuing, the court said. He then failed to answer return calls or messages asking if help was needed, police said.
The 37-year-old defendant said his phone had been on airplane mode in order to save battery power.
Liability question: The risk of being a trip leader
During the trial, questions arose about the extent of legal liability in the high mountains and whether climbers generally explore at their own risk.
In this trial, the prosecution argued that the defendant was effectively acting as a mountain guide due to his greater level of experience.
That meant he had a special duty of care.
The presiding judge, Norbert Hofer, who is an experienced mountaineer, said Thomas P. should have realized his girlfriend wouldn’t be able to complete the climb well before they ran into difficulty.
“I do not see you as a murderer. I do not see you as cold-hearted,” Hofer told the defendant as he read his ruling, accepting that Thomas P. had indeed gone to fetch help.
He added, however, that the defendant was a better mountaineer than his girlfriend by “galaxies”, and that she had placed herself in his care.
“What I want to say is that I am so terribly sorry,” Thomas P. told the court.
Some 8,400 accidents occur on average each year in the Austrian mountains resulting in around 250 to 300 deaths, according to Austrian Alpine Safety Board.
* In accordance with the German press code, Deutsche Welle refrains from publishing the full name of criminal suspects.
Edited by: Sean Sinico