Man Leaves ‘Girlfriend To Freeze To Death’ On Top Of Austria’s Highest Mountain

A man who left his girlfriend alone for nearly seven hours on Austria’s highest mountain to get help has been charged with manslaughter after she froze to death.

The 33-year-old from Salzburg died on the 12,460ft Großglockner mountain in January after setting off on a climb with her boyfriend, 36.

When they were just 165ft (50m) from the summit, the woman began to struggle and was unable to continue the climb.

The boyfriend, who was an experienced climber, left her alone to get help, but during this time, the extreme cold claimed her life.

The investigation into the woman’s death is now complete, and the boyfriend has been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence.

This may sound a bit harsh, until you learn the details. As mentioned earlier, the boyfriend was an experienced climber (his girlfriend was not), and it sounds as though there were a catalogue of errors on his part that began even before the start of their ascent of Großglockner mountain.

A statement from the prosecutor’s office said: ‘At approximately 2am, 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.’

Prosecutors looked through forensic reports, mobile phones, sports watches, pictures, videos, and a technical alpine technical expert’s assessment, and determined the boyfriend made a host of (arguably suspicious) mistakes.

He apparently did not take into account that his girlfriend was highly inexperienced and had never done an alpine high-altitude tour of this length.

He began the climb two hours later than scheduled, and was not carrying sufficient emergency equipment.

When he left his girlfriend to get help, he did not bring her to a wind-protected place and did not use a bivouac sack or aluminium rescue blankets, which would be absolutely standard in a situation like that.

He also allowed his girlfriend to use equipment that is considered unsuitable among mountaineers for a high-alpine tour in mixed terrain – a splitboard and soft snow boots.

According to the prosecution, the boyfriend should have turned back earlier in the day due to worsening weather conditions, with wind speeds of up to 46mph and freezing temperatures.

He also failed to make an emergency call before nightfall, despite the severity of his girlfriend’s situation.

The couple were stranded from around 8.50pm, but when a police helicopter flew over at 10.50pm, he failed to give any distress signals.

After several attempts by the Alpine Police to contact the boyfriend, he finally spoke to an officer just past midnight, and only decided to notify rescue services at 3.30am. WTF?

In any case, due to strong winds, a helicopter rescue could not be carried out until shortly after 10am, at which point mountain rescuers reached the victim, who was already dead.

The boyfriend’s lawyer argued that ‘it was a tragic, fateful accident’, but prosecutors simply could not wrap their heads around the way he handled the whole thing, not to mention the poor planning of the climb itself. I mean, considering all the errors he made, he actually doesn’t sound too experienced himself, does he?

Now obviously I don’t want to accuse this guy of intentionally allowing his girlfriend to die, and I’m sure prosecutors also looked closely into the couple’s relationship to determine whether this guy was just stupid or if there was something more sinister at play. It just doesn’t make sense how he’d leave her so poorly-equipped, abandon her at a spot where she wasn’t protected by the wind whatsoever, and wait so long to make an emergency call.

The boyfriend’s trial is set to take place on February 19, 2026, at the Innsbruck Regional Court.

For the boyfriend who continued competing at a fitness event as paramedics treated his passed-out girlfriend, click HERE.