A climber who allegedly abandoned his girlfriend at the top of Austria’s highest mountain leaving her to freeze to death has told a trial ‘she told me to go’ as he denies manslaughter.
Thomas Plamberger, 39, blinked back tears as he spoke to the hushed courtroom for the first time about the death of Kerstin Gurtner, 33, in a tragedy that went around the world.
Kerstin died just 150ft below the summit of the 12,460ft Grossglockner in January 2024 as temperatures plunged to a bone-numbing minus 20c.
Plamberger is accused of negligent homicide and his trial opened in Innsbruck to a packed courtroom with media from all over the world attending and onlookers queuing from before dawn.
Judge Norbert Hofer – an expert on mountain law and avalanche and skiing accidents – opened the hearing by asking Plamberger how he was feeling and he replied: ’ Good.’
He then pleaded not guilty to the charge of negligent homicide which carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail.
Kurt Jelinek, representing Plamberger, claimed his girlfriend shouted at him to ‘Go!’ after he spent an hour and a half with her in freezing conditions.
But Plamberger is accused of making a series of mistakes on the trip which culminated in Kerstin’s death including being poorly equipped and failed to call to help despite realising the situation was critical.
Kerstin Gurtner, 33, with her climbing partner and boyfriend, Thomas Plamberger, 39, who faces a manslaughter trial after allegedly leaving her to die
Kerstin died just 150ft below the summit of the 12,460ft Grossglockner in January 2024 as temperatures plunged to a bone-numbing minus 20c
The indictment against him reads that he left her ‘exhausted, hypothermic and disorientated’ – although Kerstin’s mother has backed Plamberger and is due to give evidence in the case.
Speaking ahead of the trial she said:’ It makes me angry that Kerstin is being portrayed as a naive little thing who let herself be dragged up the mountain.
‘And I think it’s unfair how Kerstin’s boyfriend is being treated. There’s a witch hunt against him in the media and online.’
In opening remarks his lawyer said there had been a ‘misunderstanding’ between his client, and the pilot of a rescue helicopter the night of the tragedy which had led to her death.
Plamberger also told the judge he was ‘not a mountain guide but an amateur mountaineer’ and that although he had served in the Austrain army his experience was ‘self-taught’.
He explained how he had climbed the Grossglockner ‘14-15 times’ and that he had also watched videos on the internet to gain knowledge and experience of Alpine conditions.
Plamberger – dressed in a suit and pen necked white shirt – insisted they had always planned their climbs and hikes together and that Kerstin was ‘physically fit’ and they had often aborted climbs.
He described how he and Kerstin had been seeing each other for a year and had planned to move in together and would often go hiking and climbing in the mountains but he also confirmed he had no ‘specific rescue skills’.
Fifteen witnesses – including Kerstin and Plamberg’s relatives – as well as mountain rescue teams, the helicopter pilot and forensic pathologist are due to give evidence at the trial which is expected to end late Thursday with a verdict later.
Webcam images showed emergency lights of the two alpinists during their ascent glowing at 6pm on January 18
Just six hours later, the lights had dimmed as Kerstin’s strength gave out
An image captured at around 2.30am showed Plamberger allegedly pushing on alone to the other side of Grossglockner amid claims he left his partner in freezing conditions
Haunting webcam images show the glow of the couple’s two headtorches as they slowly edge towards the summit at around 6pm – almost 12 hours after setting off – then, hours later, only one light is seen as it moved down.
Rescue teams were unable to reach Kerstin until the following day due to hurricane-force winds, and she was found just below a cross that marks the summit.
Kerstin’s social media profile is illustrated with dozens of images of her and Plamberger climbing and hiking and she described herself as a ‘winter child’ and ‘mountain person’.
As part of their probe investigators examined their mobile phones, sports watches and laptops photographs the couple had taken as they made their way to the summit and concluded he made several errors.
They highlighted how the couple were poorly equipped – Kerstin was wearing snowboard soft boots instead of proper hiking footwear – officials say he ‘turned away’ despite a helicopter flying low over the area.
Through his lawyer, Kurt Jelinek, Plamberger has denied the allegations and insisted he turned away to get help, and it was simply a ‘tragic, fateful accident’.
In a statement announcing the charge Innsbruck prosecutor’s office said:’At approximately 2am on Januaru 19, 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 take into account that his girlfriend was highly inexperienced and had never undertaken an alpine high-altitude tour of this length.
Plamberger has denied the allegations and said it was a ‘tragic, fateful accident’
Kerstin’s social media profile is illustrated with dozens of images of her and Plamberger climbing and hiking, and she described herself as a ‘winter child’ and ‘mountain person’
He was also accused of scheduling the starting the climb around two hours later than prudent, while not carrying any sufficient emergency equipment.
Even when he had left his partner to get help, he apparently did not bring her to a wind-protected place and did not use a bivouac sack or aluminium rescue blankets, they said.
Given the harsh weather conditions with wind speeds of up to 46 mph and temperatures of minus eight degrees – which felt like minus 20 degrees when combined – the defendant should have turned back earlier, according to the public prosecutor.
They will also claim at the trial Plamberger and Kerstin were stranded from around 8.50pm, and he allegedly did not give any distress signals when a police helicopter flew over at 10.50pm.
After several attempts by the Alpine Police to him, he finally spoke to an officer at around 00:35am.
Officials say he had put his phone on silent and could not be contacted by Alpine police but eventually at 3:30am, he decided to notify the rescue services, after having left Kerstin alone.
