Deadly drama on the summit Woman freezes to death on the Grossglockner - now her boyfriend has to stand trial
In January, a 33-year-old female mountaineer froze to death on the summit of the Grossglockner. Now her companion at the time is facing charges of gross negligence manslaughter.
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- The public prosecutor's office in Innsbruck has charged a 36-year-old mountaineer with grossly negligent homicide.
- The man is accused of leaving his mountain partner "unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic and disoriented" on the Grossklockner.
- He also made communication with rescuers more difficult by switching his cell phone to silent mode.
- The case also caused a stir in Austria because the defendant's lawyer accused the Tyrolean Alpine Police of initiating the rescue chain too late.
The case caused quite a stir in the mountaineering scene in Austria: In January, an inexperienced 33-year-old woman froze to death on the Grossglockner. Her companion and friend, actually an experienced mountaineer, quickly came under fire.
Now the 36-year-old has been charged. The public prosecutor's office in Innsbruck accuses him, as the guide of the tour, of leaving his mountain companion "unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic and disoriented around 50 meters" below the summit. On February 19, the man will stand trial in Innsbruck for grossly negligent homicide. He faces up to three years in prison. The accused is presumed innocent.
Cell phone was silent
The investigators have made numerous accusations against the man. They allege that he did not take sufficient account of his companion's inexperience, did not prepare the duo for a dangerous situation in terms of equipment and did not take the 33-year-old to a place with as little wind as possible when she was in extreme danger. He also made it difficult to communicate with rescuers by switching his cell phone to silent mode. "He put his phone on silent and stowed it away and therefore did not answer any further calls from the Alpine police," the public prosecutor's office wrote in a statement.
In view of the storm at high altitude, the temperature was minus 20 degrees, taking into account the "wind chill" effect.
The two mountaineers had set off from Kals on January 18 for the momentous Glockner ascent at 3798 meters above sea level. In the end, the woman was too exhausted just below the summit to continue. According to previous findings, the 36-year-old had set off alone to get help. A few hours later, the woman could only be recovered dead.
Accusation "very violent"
The drama on the Grossglockner had repeatedly caused a stir in the course of the investigation. For example, the alpinist's defense attorney had recently pointed out several times that his client had done everything possible to save the woman. "He is infinitely sorry for the way things turned out," said the lawyer. In June, he also accused the Alpine police of having started the rescue chain too late.
In the Austrian mountaineering scene, the charges are now also being discussed, sometimes controversially. For example, the head of the Kals am Grossglockner mountain rescue team and mountain guide Peter Tembler considers the charges to be "very strong", as he told the "Standard" newspaper. His colleagues had to rescue the woman in January, which is why he does not want to comment further for the time being.
For Günter Karnutsch, head of the Salzburg-Alpin Alpine School, however, the charges come as no surprise. The individual nine points of the indictment are not serious in themselves. However, it was the "sum of the individual wrong decisions" that contributed to the accident.
The actually experienced alpinist "repeatedly took the wrong actions", says Karnutsch, referring in particular to the late entry into the ridge and ignoring possible turnaround points. Karnutsch cannot understand the 36-year-old's justification that he wanted to get help: "Where should he have gone for help?" After all, the Erzherzog-Johann-Hütte on the Adlersruhe was closed.
With material from the news agency DPA.
