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Home / World

Climber charged after girlfriend freezes to death near Austria’s highest peak summit

Nick Squires
Daily Telegraph UK·
6 Dec, 2025 06:59 AM4 mins to read

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An Austrian climber faces a manslaughter trial after leaving his partner to die on the country's Grossglockner peak. Photo / Getty Images

An Austrian climber faces a manslaughter trial after leaving his partner to die on the country's Grossglockner peak. Photo / Getty Images

An experienced mountaineer has been charged with manslaughter after allegedly leaving his girlfriend to freeze to death on Austria’s highest peak.

The 36-year-old climber from Salzburg is accused of making a series of life-threatening errors when he set off to climb Grossglockner mountain in January with his girlfriend.

The couple were 45m from the 3800m-high summit when the 33-year-old woman collapsed from exhaustion about 8.50pm (local time) and said she could not go on any further.

Her partner decided to leave her and descend the mountain to seek help. But he was gone for more than six hours, during which his girlfriend died from extreme cold.

Webcam images show how the tragedy unfolded.

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The couples’ torches can be seen as they initially clamber up towards the summit about 6pm on January 18.

The next image, taken six hours later, shows a small pool of light as the torches began to lose power.

A third image reveals the boyfriend, his torch still functioning, traversing the top of the mountain in an attempt to descend the other side and find help, leaving his girlfriend alone.

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The next day, at 7am, a helicopter was deployed to try to find the woman but the mission had to be called off because of strong gusts.

Three hours later, a rescue team was sent up the mountain but by the time they had reached the woman she was dead.

Her boyfriend was charged with manslaughter and gross negligence after an investigation into her death.

If convicted of the charges, he could be imprisoned for up to three years. His trial will begin in February at a court in Innsbruck.

Prosecutors accuse the mountaineer of making nine cardinal errors.

They said he should not have embarked on the climb because of his girlfriend’s inexperience – she had never undertaken such a challenging high-altitude climb in winter conditions.

He was also accused of starting the climb two hours later than he had originally planned.

He did not carry emergency bivouac equipment, which could have kept the woman warm when he went for help.

His girlfriend was wearing soft snowboard boots, which were unsuitable for the mountain terrain, prosecutors said.

The climber should have made the decision to abandon the entire venture because of 74km/h winds and temperatures of minus 8C, which would have felt more like minus 20C with the wind chill effect.

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He also did not give a distress signal when a helicopter flew over at 10.50pm and only called the police at 12.35am, but then put his phone on silent so that he missed any further calls.

Lastly, he failed to ensure his girlfriend was in a sheltered spot, out of the wind, which may have slowed her rate of heat loss. Nor did he remove her backpack and wrap her in emergency blankets, which the couple had brought with them.

“At approximately 2am, the defendant left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic, and disoriented about 50m 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,” prosecutors said in a statement.

“Despite the woman’s inexperience – she had never undertaken an alpine high-altitude tour of this length, difficulty and altitude – and despite the challenging winter conditions, the defendant undertook the alpine high-altitude tour to the Grossglockner via the Stüdlgrat with her in winter.”

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