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.
I think the combination of his refusing to continue communication with emergency services and waiting nearly 3 hours before requesting emergency aid is what makes this criminal negligence.
The stupidity on display, while impressive, I dont think is criminal in and of itself. A certain amount of risk and consequence can be expected of such an excursion.
He also “allowed his girlfriend to use… snowboard soft boots, equipment that is not suitable for a high-altitude tour in mixed terrain”, say prosecutors.
That … is wonderfully placed. I can see the prosecutor saying it, stopping to check notes, and then continuing.
Allowed her to wear? Does he control her wardrobe?
He cannot force her to wear anything, but as the experienced climber he can deny the tour/guidance. If you have the skill, but neglect to use them in human fashion, that makes it more than an accident.
He was considerably more experienced as a climber. And even I could tell you not to go mountain climbing in snowboarding boots.
If I were to take someone mountain climbing I wouldn’t allow them to wear life threatening clothing.
Yeah I was wondering about that too, it only makes sense in a context where he’s much much more knowledgeable about mountaineering than her.
Fun fact: … is called an ellipsis.
Never understood that name. What’s so elliptical about it?
Etymology: Latin, from Greek elleipsis ellipsis, ellipse, from elleipein to leave out, fall short, from en in + leipein to leave
Oh!
Well that makes sense. Thank you.So an elliptical trajectory is also called that because it “falls short” of a circular one?
ellipse(n.) 1753, from French ellipse (17c.), from Latin ellipsis “ellipse,” also, “a falling short, deficit,” from Greek elleipsis (see ellipsis). So called because the conic section of the cutting plane makes a smaller angle with the base than does the side of the cone, hence, a “falling short.”
https://www.etymonline.com/word/ellipse
Edit: yes
That tidbit right there takes in a darker direction.
Otherwise, I’d say just leaving someone when you’re both freezing to death is scummy, but understandable.
What is weird is the phone in silent and him not trying to contact for help. Mobile coverage maps shows that this area is under coverage. From a personal experience, when It’s really cold I usually put on every piece of clothes I can once I stop moving. Even get in my sleeping bag if necessary.
Yes. What was the point of him putting his phone on silent? What was the reasoning behind that?
Probably made the murder easier.
Arctic mountains… unexplored deep caves… diving into oceanic trenches… I feel like if you do any of these things, you are solely responsible if you get hurt or die, and that people do these things because they are so dangerous.
Either she was an experienced climber and made the decision to enter a dangerous, life-threatening situation, or she wasn’t, and he dragged her into it. It seems like everyone is saying she’s the former except these prosecutors who are looking to paint her as a victim, when she had the skill and experience to make that decision, and chose poorly.
Arctic mountains
This one was in central Europe, though.
Her footwear selection (light snowboarding boots) might indicate she’s on the wrong side of the knowledge curve. Dunning Krueger is a bitch sometimes. But I read elsewhere that her family is standing by him, and I assume there’s a reason for that.
I think it really depends how dangerous it would have been for him to stay with her.
On Everest, if someone is incapacitated, then there’s no point waiting with them because then you’d die too and no rescue is coming.
This situation is different because a rescue could be mounted, and its not certain the guy would’ve died if he had have waited with her.
Like imagine you’re swimming a few hundred metres from the beach and your partner gets a cramp, do you just say “oh well you knew the risks” and leave them?
Like imagine you’re swimming a few hundred metres from the beach and your partner gets a cramp, do you just say “oh well you knew the risks” and leave them?
Only if you planned to breakup before, it avoid the uncomfortable situation for both person once you announced it and swim away 👍
Interesting case. I think it’s hard to call with the little facts on hand. There seems to be at least some level of neglect. I wonder, though, did she not have a phone? Was there no reception, or why did she not call or signal for help herself? If there was no reception, what else could he have done? Were there other ways to make it through the night? Those details will have to be evaluated in court.
There seems to be at least some level of neglect.
Especially since he is claimed to have quite a bit of alpine experience compared to her. That’s really what brings the liability of negligence to the whole scenario.
Alpine hiking at night is already incredibly dangerous, but not ensuring the person with the least amount of experience has the correct equipment and knows how to use it is just wild.
I wonder, though, did she not have a phone? Was there no reception, or why did she not call or signal for help herself?
Well the confusing thing is that they had helicopters overfly them multiple times as they made their climb and both failed to signal and continued their way to the summit. The person on trial claims that she was doing fine until right after the last flyover and then suddenly started to get worse.
As someone with a mild amount of cold weather experience… I don’t really believe this at all. If I were a betting guy I would wager that she was already suffering from the mental affects of hypothermia. You can enter a super suggestive state the colder you get and your mental faculties and decision making ability rapidly deteriorate to the point where you can get lost and just start walking in circles.
Were there other ways to make it through the night?
She did have a bivy sack that could have provided at least a decent amount of shelter, but he didn’t help her set it up before he left her on the mountain.
Tbh it really seems like he was purposely trying to endanger her, or at very least is a huge piece of shit that didn’t care about her well-being. This would be like a scuba diver taking an amateur on a night dive, not teaching them how to operate their regulator, and than abandoning them a hundred feet underwater in the dark. It really is criminal.
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.
At one point the article calls her his client but never explicitly states if he was acting in any professional sense or not (it seems not).The case against him seems to mostly be that apparently she had no responsibility for herself?If he was acting in a professional capacity that might hold but otherwise seems flimsy.The article doesn’t call the dead woman the client of her boyfriend, it calls the boyfriend the client of the defence attorney.
Ahh thanks, my bad, misread that.
Mountaineering is dangerous and expensive.
I don’t have much sympathy for the people that use their excess wealth for thrills while children go without food and education.
This is honestly something that you should speak to a therapist about.
You are posting this from a computer or smart phone, a device that costs a significant amount of money. You are wasting your leisure time that you have because of your comfortable wealth and status in society to post to an online platform which doesn’t contribute anything to the world. You are richer than most people on the planet. You are wasting the opportunities given to you as a rich person. You could sell your electronic devices and give the money to the poor. You could be volunteering right now helping less fortunate people. Instead you comment on social media that people who are slightly richer than you don’t deserve sympathy for their deaths. People who are actually out in the world living their lives exploring the world and enriching themselves.
Is it really right to be judging someone in this way? In the way that I have just judged you?
You’re upset that I criticized how wealthy people waste their wealth on vain endeavors while children live in poverty.
No, I said that you should speak to a therapist. You seemed like you are jealous of others and insecure about the impact that you have on the world. Compared to most people on this planet you are almost certainly a wealthy person , or else you wouldn’t have the luxury to be wasting your time making these comments in this place.
Your comments are literally a vain endeavour.
You’re the one who needs a therapist. Look at how upset you’re getting and how much nonsense you need to make up because someone else criticized how wealthy people waste their money.
No, man. Introspect a little.
??? Austrians on an Austrian mountain, why would that be out of reach to working people and involve excess wealth at all? Also, those problems are for the state to solve and Austria has a decent welfare system, improvable, like all of them, but not something to be fixed by two random citizens.
Someone enjoying the outdoors, even if they paid money to do it, is not the cause of poverty. The rich stealing from us is. In a million ways, but the biggest way, viturally unreported, is that since the 1970s the US led the way in changing the way the CPI was calculated, several times, to understate it. It’s averaged 2-3% a year just by 2008 under the new metrics, while the old metric it was 5-8%. The changes were obviously not in good faith, although you all mostly assume it is still.
Giving the benefit of the doubt to these people, seeing where following their lead has brought us, just astounds me, truly an indictment of the population in trusting the wrong people and never admitting they made a mistake in doing so. Tribal loyalties may play a part, even as your tribal leaders have nothing but contempt for you and are turning you into a slave.
But that’s neither here nor there, the inflation understated by some 5% for half a century is compounded, just by 2008 social security checks would’ve been worth 1,300 more a month on average under the old standard.
Our buying power has never been higher, on paper, the economists tell us. As rent, healthcare, energy, drugs, are all obscenely overpriced. Often the costs hidden under employer based systems as with drugs and healthcare, making people think it’s just a problem of the others even as their employers, and themselves, pay more for less to profit parasites that add no value.
We meekly trust the authorities as they’ve for 50 years given us a real pay cut in value, and now even good college requiring jobs don’t pay for what a single minimum wage job could provide back in the 1950s to the 1970s, while the ivy league that runs business and government in all the top positions puts on their suits as the representative of your tribe and blows smoke up your ass about it.
I can sort of see your point, but it also sounds a little like “oh you enjoy any hobby or activity not strictly related to your survival? Well fuck you then, there are people starving”.
Nah. The amount of money being spent coupled with it being dangerous is what leads to my apathy.
It would be different if the money wasted on this venture couldn’t drastically change the life of someone living in poverty, especially children.
How much money was spent?
at least three!
There is value in exploring hobbies and building skills. For example, during natural disasters in remote areas, people with experience are better suited to go in and help. People with climbing experience might be going down into a collapsed mine to rescue survivors.
Thanks for this. I now feel less guilty about buying a guitar because I could one day use it to sooth the minds of trapped miners.
Unless he tied her and dragged her up the mountain or broke her legs before leaving her there I don’t see how he is any more responsible than she is.
My ex used to claim they could do X or Y task and I would make arrangements under the assumption they knew what they were talking about.
We’d get to the point they would need to utilise said skill, and they’d turn to me and say actually I thought I could wing it but I can’t, you’re going to have to do this now.
If I’d been told at the start that they didn’t know, I would have spent more time investigating the situation and upskilled myself in preparation. Instead, I’d ask “Do we have everything we need? Does this look good?”, get told it’s fine - and it wasn’t.
The lady in the article may well have deferred to his expertise when asking if she was adequately prepared, and trusted his judgement over a quick Dr Google search.
It’s perfectly understandable in many different situations but climbing the highest peak in Austria is not one of them. A normal person would go for an easy hike first, do some multiday hiking next, do some winter hiking, do some multiday winter hiking and at the same time climb ~2000m peak, climb ~3000m peak and then try climbing 3.700m peak in winter. You can skip some steps if you feel comfortable and someone with more experience helps you but if you find yourself in a situation that’s completely beyond what you can manage it’s on you. Normal person should also understand the difference between professional mountain guide and just another climber. As you said, people can lie and you can never put absolute trust in someone.
And yes, I can imagine a fucked up scenario where the guy manipulates her and intentionally puts her in a situation she can’t handle but for me it’s closer to situation like romance fraud than to criminal negligence. You would have to prove that he gaslighted her, presented her with false information and otherwise manipulated her over extended period of time to build trust with the purpose of killing her. If you can’t prove that then we’re talking about two consenting adults doing something dangerous and one of them dying.
I don’t know. I’ve seen some people take their friends into some pretty dangerous situations then had to limp out their injured scared friends while they continue off and enjoy themselves on their adventure. As a quick scenario to highlight that aspect, if you agree to drink a beer but it’s poison, you agreed but you were misled
That’s not “misleading” someone. That’s poisoning which is straight murder.
If I told you to do base jumping with me and that it’s easy and safe, would you jump? I imagine not (unless you actually do base jumping) because you would immediately recognize it’s crazy. If I told you to climb the highest peak in Austria during winter with me you should also be able to evaluate if it’s beyond your ability or not. If it was achievable than neither of them could predict what will happen and it was an accident. If it was clearly too dangerous for her she should be able to recognize it.
OK, let’s prosecute her as well then.
