A woman who froze to death after allegedly being abandoned by her boyfriend on Austria’s tallest mountain has been pictured for the first time.
Kerstin Gurtner, 33, died in the pitch-black on 12,640ft Grossglockner on a night when temperatures plunged to -20C in January last year.
Thomas Plamberger, her 39-year-old boyfriend, now faces a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence.
Prosecutors say Plamberger left Gurtner ‘unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic and disoriented’ and that, as an experienced climber, he was the ‘responsible guide of the tour’.
Plamberger has denied the allegations, saying through his lawyer that he left her to get help in what was a ‘tragic, fateful incident’.
Hundreds of tributes have poured in for Gurtner since her death, with people remembering the ‘wonderful’ woman.
The couple started climbing Grossglockner, in the nation’s central-west, on January 19, with prosecutors saying they set off two hours later than planned.
Harsh weather conditions, including wind speeds of up to 46mph, would have made the -8°C temperature feel more like -20°C.
Chilling webcam footage of the mountain showed the climbers’ lights glowing at around 6pm.
The pair were stranded from around 8.50pm. Hours later, only one light can be seen moving away, with Plamberger leaving her at 2am.
Mountain rescue teams in helicopters found Gurtner dead at 10am, just 150ft below the summit.
They had tried to descend earlier in the morning but weather conditions prevented them.
As part of their probe, investigators trawled through the couple’s mobile phones, sport watches and laptops.
Examining photographs the couple had taken as they made their way to the summit, they concluded Plamberger made several errors.
He is accused of not making enough effort to contact emergency services before nightfall and of not making a distress signal when a police helicopter flew overhead at 10.50pm.
Prosecutors also say the couple were poorly equipped – with Gurtner wearing snowboard soft boots instead of proper hiking footwear.
They also argue he did not put her in a wind-sheltered place, use aluminum rescue blankets or a ‘bivvy bag’ – a waterproof-covered sleeping bag – to keep her warm when he left her.
He is also accused of starting the tour around two hours later than scheduled, and not carrying the right emergency equipment.
In a statement Innsbruck prosecutor’s office said: ‘At approximately 2am, the defendant left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic, and disoriented about 50 meters below the summit cross of the Grossglockner.
‘The woman froze to death. 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.’
They added he did not properly consider that his girlfriend had never attempted an alpine high-altitude tour of this length.
According to amateur mountaineers writing online, Grossglockner is a challenging ascent requiring ropes, crampons and ice axes.
The usual route forces climbers to cross a glacier – treacherous bodies of ice known for their hidden crevasses.
A funeral notice for Gurtner posted online last January said: ‘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. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to three years.
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