Man ‘didn’t call help for hours' after 'leaving girlfriend to freeze to death' on mountain summit
Prosecutors have accused the boyfriend of Kerstin Gurtner, a woman who died after allegedly being abandoned on a mountain, of failing to call for help for several hours after they ran into difficulty.
Gurtner, 33, and her boyfriend, 39, had been climbing Austria's highest mountain, the Großglockner, in January of this year.
The boyfriend was described as an experienced climber, but the couple ran into difficulties as they got closer to the summit of the 12,460-foot tall mountain.
The 39-year-old was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence after being accused of climbing down the mountain without her, leaving Gurtner alone just below the summit where she was found dead.
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Prosecutors 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."
Among the accusations prosecutors have levelled at the man is the claim that he didn't call for help for hours after they got in trouble on the mountain.
They claim that on 19 January, Gurtner was inexperienced and ill-equipped for the mountain climb, and that her boyfriend was 'very experienced' and should have been the 'responsible guide'.
Prosecutors allege that the couple set off two hours too late and were caught in strong winds during their climb, producing conditions where they ought to have turned back.
They claim that the couple were 'effectively unable to continue their journey from approximately 8:50pm onwards', but despite this the man 'failed to make an emergency call in time before nightfall' and it would be several hours before he called for help.
Prosecutors say that at 10:50pm, a police helicopter flew overhead but the man did not give a distress signal, and despite several attempts from Alpine Police to contact them he didn't call until 35 minutes past midnight.
He is then alleged to have put his phone on silent and 'put it away' with him not making another call for nearly three more hours, finally phoning the rescue services at 3:30am.
This was an hour-and-a-half after he had left Gurtner alone near the summit of the mountain at 2am that morning, with prosecutors alleging that the experienced climber failed to move her to a more sheltered spot or use emergency blankets to keep her warm before leaving her.
He is accused of having 'left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic, and disoriented'.
Rescue efforts were launched at 7am but strong winds meant they were delayed and could not reach the woman's location until 10am, by which time she was found dead.
A trial is set to go ahead in February.
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Joe Harker