Climber who left girlfriend to die on Austria's biggest mountain spared jail after being found guilty of manslaughter
Thomas Plamberger was spared jail as Judge Norbert Hofer suspended his five-month prison sentence and handed him a fine of £8,400
A man who left his girlfriend to die meters from the peak of Austria's highest mountain has been found guilty of manslaughter.
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Chilling webcam footage emerged in December showing the experienced climber abandoning his girlfriend at the top of Austria’s biggest mountain.
A year on from the tragic mountaintop incident, Thomas Plamberger, 36, has been found guilty of gross negligience manslaughter by leaving Kerstin Gurtner just 150m from the summit of the Grossglockner.
He was spared jail, however, with Judge Norbert Hofer suspending his five-month prison sentence and handing him a fine of £8,400.
Gurtner was left by Plamberger when she began feeling unwell and noticeably disoriented at 2am on January 19, 2025, the court heard.
Plamberger returned to the mountain six and a half hours later to find her dead after descending the summit in order to find help, according to the public prosecutor.
Read more: Third Briton dies in French Alps avalanches in one week
Ms Gurtner's death came after she was left "unprotected, exhausted, and hypothermic" atop the peak.
Webcam images shared by local media outlets have previously revealed the emergency lights of the two mountaineers during their ascent at around 6pm on January 18, 2025.
Prosecutors argued that the climber made nine key mistakes in the run-up to Ms Gurtner’s death, including a lack of proper planning where the expedition was concerned and failing to properly make contact with search teams and police.
Prosecutors embarked on an 11-month investigation into the tragedy last January.
Evidence included analysis from the couple’s mobile phones, sports watches, images captured during the ascent and reports conducted by an independent Alpine mountaineering expert.
Investigators said the pair were battered with winds up to 46mph, with the conditions feeling like -20C.
Despite the extreme cold, the woman was allowed to attempt the final stretch up the peak with a splitboard and soft snow boots
Experts have called the kit, "totally unsuitable" for the high-alpine hike.
Plamberger's lawyer, Kurt Jelinek, said: “My client is very sorry about how things turned out.”
He added that the defence “still assumes it was a tragic, fateful accident .”
The boyfriend has also been accused of failing to make an emergency call in time.
The pair were stranded from around 9pm, but no call went in until 12:35am, prosecutors claim.
He did not call rescuers again after the first phone call.
It comes after a third British man was killed in an avalanche in the French Alps this week, just days after two British men were among three killed in a separate avalanche in the region.