"Sadly, that's what apparently played out between a couple who were attempting to climb Glockner in January 2025-and the fact that the girlfriend did not survive ultimately led to a just-concluded trial for manslaughter. Defendant Thomas P (Austrian courts anonymize names) was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter for leaving girlfriend Kerstin G behind near the Glockner summit, only hours after he had told potential rescuers that they were fine and that no rescue would be necessary."
"You'd think the testimony from Thomas P's former girlfriend, who was called as a witness, would have weighed more heavily on the sentence handed down by Judge Norbert Hofer. According to The Guardian, she testified during the trial that she had also climbed Glockner with Thomas P in 2023, and that he had the gall to abandon her as well "on the route at night after her head torch ran out of battery, leaving her distressed.""
More than 8,000 accidents and nearly 300 deaths occur annually in Austria's mountains. A January 2025 Glockner ascent ended with the female climber's death after her partner left her near the summit and told rescuers no help was needed. The partner, Thomas P, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter and received a five-month suspended sentence plus a €9,400 fine; the maximum penalty would have been three years in prison. A former girlfriend testified that Thomas P had previously abandoned her on the same route in 2023 when her head torch failed, leaving her distressed.
Read at Jezebel
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]