A climber accused of leaving his girlfriend to freeze to death at the top of Austria’s highest peak has blamed her for telling him to leave and get help.
Thomas Plamberger, 39, is standing trial for manslaughter for leaving girlfriend Kerstin Gutner, 33, to die of hypothermia just 150 feet below the 12,500-foot summit of Grossglockner mountain in January 2024.
But he claims he only left after she shouted at him to “go!” and get help, his attorney, Kurt Jelinket, told the opening day of the trial Thursday.
Before that request, Plamberger spent more than an hour and a half trying to care for his girlfriend when she was too exhausted to continue in brutal conditions, with temperatures dropping to minus 17 degrees and winds whipping to 45 miles per hour, his attorney said. He made every effort to get help, Jelinket said.
However, prosecutors accuse Plamberger of making fatal mistakes when Gutner became “exhausted, hypothermic and disoriented,” and failing to raise the alarm in time to save her.
“Since the defendant, unlike his girlfriend, was already very experienced with alpine high-altitude tours and had planned the tour, he was to be considered the responsible guide of the tour,” the prosecutors said in December when Plamberger was charged.
In court, they also claim that his account of events does not completely add up.
Prosecutors claim Plamberger and his girlfriend became stranded just before 9 p.m., but he did not call police until 1:35 a.m. — an hour later than he claims — and then set off about 30 minutes later in search of help. Rescue crews didn’t find Gartner’s frozen body until 10 a.m. the following day.
The veteran mountaineer pleaded not guilty on his first day in court in Innsbruck, Austria, on Thursday, according to The Sun. He could face up to three years in prison if convicted.
His dead girlfriend’s mom is standing firmly on his side, ripping the decision to take the tragedy to trial.
“It makes me angry that Kerstin is being portrayed as a naïve little thing who let herself be dragged up the mountain,” she has said.
“And I think it’s unfair how Kerstin’s boyfriend is being treated. There’s a witch hunt against him in the media and online.”
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