Boyfriend charged after 'leaving girlfriend to freeze to death' on mountain summit

A man has been charged with manslaughter after allegedly leaving his girlfriend stranded on a mountain.

At the beginning of the year, a man, whose identity has not been revealed, went up the Grossglockner mountain in Austria (the country's highest mountain) with his girlfriend.

The 39-year-old has been described as an experienced climber while his partner, 33, had no experience at all.

Disaster struck when the pair got near to the summit of the 12,460 foot mountain on January 19 when the woman found herself unable to climb any further.

Instead of calling the emergency services straight away, the man reportedly left his girlfriend on the mountain to go try get help. Tragically she 'froze to death'.

The boyfriend has since been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence, says Heute.

A statement from the public prosecutor's office via the German news channel read: "At approximately 2:00 a.m., the defendant left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic, and disoriented about 50 meters below the summit cross of the Grossglockner."

Grossglockner is Austria's highest mountain (KERSTIN JOENSSON/AFP via Getty Images)

It continues: "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."

He's accused of making nine errors: the main one being the fact he even did the climb in the first place with the 'difficulty and altitude' and his partner's lack of experience in mind.

Prosecutors also say he started the tour two hours later then planned and that he 'did not anticipate an emergency during the tour planning', therefore didn't have any emergency equipment on hand when his girlfriend started having issues.

As well as this, he supposedly allowed his girlfriend to wear equipment that was 'unsuitable for a high-alpine tour in mixed terrain'.

The emergency number is Austria 112 (Getty Stock Image)

Elsewhere, the 39-year-old is accused of failing to make an emergency call in time before nightfall; not turning back in time despite the harsh weather conditions; and not making distress signals when a police helicopter flew over around 10:50pm on the fateful day.

Lastly, he failed to give his girlfriend the best chances possible when he left her to get help.

"The defendant failed to move his girlfriend to a sheltered spot to protect her from heat loss," prosecutors say, per Heute. "Before leaving his girlfriend at around 2:00 a.m., he neither used her bivouac sack nor the available emergency blankets to protect her from further cooling, nor did he remove her heavy backpack and splitboard."

His trial will begin February 19, 2026.

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