Ex-girlfriend of man who left partner to freeze to death on mountain describes moment he left her on peak too
Kerstin Gurtner was not the first woman abandoned on a mountain by the experienced climber convicted this week over his girlfriend's death
The former girlfriend of an Austrian climber, who was found guilty this week after leaving his inexperienced partner to freeze to death on the side of a mountain, has shared her terrifyingly similar experience.
Thomas Plamberger, 39, was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter by a court in Innsbruck on Friday, February 20, over the incident on Grossglockner mountain in January 2025, where he abandoned his 33-year-old girlfriend Kerstin Gurtner despite a brutal -4F windchill.
The experienced climber had pled not guilty to the charge, claiming that he left Gurtner behind to get help, after she had struggled and eventually collapsed 150ft from the Grossglockner's 12,460ft summit.
But his previous partner told the Austrian judge that something similar had happened to her in 2023, when Plamberger had taken her on a risky winter hike up the exact same mountain, which is the highest in the country.
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Named as Andrea B, his ex-girlfriend told the court in a letter that the veteran climber had also abandoned her when things started to get difficult, the Sun reports.
She said he walked away when she got to the end of her rope, suffering a head torch malfunction and feeling dizzy while thousands of feet up the side of the large mountain. The pair had got into a 'heated argument' about the unexpected difficulty of the climb, the letter claimed.
Andrea began crying and screaming when she realized that Plamberger had suddenly disappeared, walking ahead and leaving her 'in a desperate situation'.
Plamberger said in court that he and Gurtner, who he admitted was an 'amateur', had planned the night time expedition up the challenging mountain together. However, they set off two hours later than planned, amid bitter alpine conditions and without standard emergency gear.
Chilling footage from webcams pointed at the mountain recorded the pair ascending the Grossglockner, with their head torches visible against the pitch black of the winter night. The entire way, they battled arctic temperatures and fierce winds.
Gurtner's autopsy revealed that she had been infected with viral pneumonia while attempting the climb, though the coroner was unable to establish whether this contributed to her struggling with the climb.
However a number of other details pertaining to the tragic expedition were heavily scrutinized in court.
This included questions over why Plamberger apparently made no effort to signal to a police helicopter that wheeled overhead at 10.30pm, or why it took him until 00.35am to ring the police.
The police call was another piece of the puzzle that was not solved in court, after the defense denied initial reports that the climber had told the police that everything was fine.
He then abandoned his girlfriend at 2am, apparently after she insisted that he 'go'. Webcam footage showed his headtorch as he climbed to the summit, and made his way down the other side of the mountain.
Judge Norbert Hofer, himself an experienced climber, also queried Plamberger's account of why he left Gurtner to freeze to death, based on photos of the position her body was found in by rescuers the next morning.
Despite claims that she had become unwell, the mountain rescue team found her lying upside down on a rock face, away from the location where Plamberger allegedly left her.
The team said they 'were amazed that she remained in that position' despite the strong winds, which had whipped the mountain with gusts up to 45mph on the night of her death. They believed this position indicated that Gurtner had tried to make her own way down the 12,000ft mountain.
Thomas Plamberger was handed a five-month suspended sentence and fined €9,600 ($11,310) over the incident, with the judge taking his clean record into account as a mitigating factor.
Topics: Crime, Court, Sex and Relationships
William Morgan