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.
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.