A first picture has been shared of the girlfriend who tragically died near the summit of Austria’s highest peak after her partner allegedly abandoned her to freeze to death
Heart-breaking images of a mountaineer who froze to death on a daring night-time ascent of an Alpine peak last January have now been shared.
Kerstin Gurtner, 33, died just 150ft from the summit of the 12,460ft Grossglockner, Austria’s tallest mountain, as temperatures plunged to -20C. But her death is now the subject of a homicide investigation, as her older boyfriend is blamed for leaving her “exhausted, hypothermic and disoriented” in the cold and dark.
Prosecutors accuse him of heartlessly leaving her to die without even taking her to a wind-protected location or using a bivouac sack or aluminium rescue blankets.
Kerstin’s social media features dozens of images of her with her boyfriend, Thomas Plamberger, 39, climbing and hiking. She described herself online as a “winter child” and “mountain person”.
But prosecutors claim she was far less experienced than her boyfriend, who should have acted as “a responsible guide”. He instead pressed on in a dangerous nighttime ascent for which his girlfriend lacked the right kit, wearing soft snow boots instead of hiking footwear
He left her to get help at 2am, but rescuers only reached her at 10am, by which time she had frozen to death in the brutal conditions. Winds raging at up to 46mph brought the temperature they felt down from -8C to -20C.
Although Plamberger describes the death as a “tragic, fateful accident” he faces a charge of negligent homicide over a string of poor decisions.
Prosecutors blame him for pressing on with the ascent despite starting two hours late in such arctic conditions without enough emergency equipment.
He is accused of failing to make an emergency call before nightfall. The defendant and his girlfriend were stranded from around 8.50pm. But he allegedly didn’t make any distress signals when a police helicopter flew over at 10.50pm.
After several attempts by the Alpine Police to contact the boyfriend, he finally spoke to an officer at about 12.35am. Their conversation remains unclear and he didn’t contact the rescue services again.
He put his phone on silent and put it away, so he didn’t receive any further calls from the police. At 3:30am he then decided to notify the rescue services, after having left the woman alone.
A helicopter rescue couldn’t be carried out at dawn because of strong winds. Shortly after 10am, the mountain rescuers reached the victim but found her already dead.
A funeral notice for Kerstin posted online last January read: “Our lives are in God‘s hands; if it is His will, then do not grieve for me. But remember me with love.”
Plamberger’s trial is set to start in February and if convicted he could be jailed for up to three years.
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