Shocking footage appears to show the moment an experienced mountaineer left his exhausted girlfriend behind where she 'froze' to death.
On January 19 this year, a man whose name has not been made public trekked to the summit of Grossglockner mountain, Austria's highest peak, with his 33-year-old partner.
Tragically, the woman never made it, having been found dead around a mere 160 feet from the summit.
It is believed she got into difficulty at about 2am, with her boyfriend, an experienced climber, allegedly leaving her behind to find help.
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However, the 39-year-old has since been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence, reports Heute, since he failed to shelter her from the harsh winds travelling at around 45mph or wrap her in aluminium rescue blankets to shield her from the freezing temperatures.
Now, webcam images of the fatal climb appear to show their flashlights clearly visible on the side of the mountain as they approached the summit.
The footage comes as prosecutors argue the man allegedly made a series of questionable errors, including the fact they attempted the climb in the first place considering its 'difficulty and altitude' and his partner's apparent lack of experience.
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Prosecutors also say he started the tour two hours later than planned and that he 'did not anticipate an emergency during the tour planning', therefore meaning the pair were short on any vital life-saving emergency equipment when the woman came into difficulty.
In addition, he supposedly allowed his girlfriend to wear equipment that was 'unsuitable for a high-alpine tour in mixed terrain' and 'failed to move her to a sheltered spot to protect her from heat loss' before leaving her.
"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," they added.
Prosecutors further accuse him of failing to make an emergency call before nightfall, arguing they ought to have turned around considering the harsh weather and that he missed an opportunity to make distress signals to a police chopper that flew over at around 10.50pm that night.
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When he did eventually make contact with emergency services at around 3.30am, prosecutors allege he became uncontactable.
"He put his phone on silent and stowed it away,” they claimed.
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."
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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."
By contrast, the woman had reportedly never tackled such a climb with similar altitudes or difficulty.
Prosecutors added: “Despite the woman’s inexperience, as she had never undertaken an alpine high-altitude tour of this length, difficulty, and altitude, and despite the challenging winter conditions, the defendant undertook the alpine high-altitude tour to the Grossglockner via the Studlgrat with her in winter."
The trial is set to begin February 19, 2026.
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