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Haunting photographs have revealed how a woman was 'left to freeze to death' on a mountain summit.
The woman, aged 33, had been on a tour with her partner earlier this year, heading up to Grossglockner - a mountain over 12,000ft tall and Austria's highest. It's reported that at some point during the tour, the woman was unable to continue climbing the mountain, and so her boyfriend allegedly left her alone to seek help.
Tragically, the women died after 'freezing to death'.
The woman's boyfriend, who is an experienced climber has now been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence. It is said he is facing up to three years in prison for her death.
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Webcam images have now emerged, revealing the chilling sequence of events.
The first image shows the lights of both climbers at around 6pm as they headed up the mountain in January.
A second image showed more lights, but this time they appeared dimmer due to weakening battery strength.
A third haunting photo shows lights towards the other side of the mountain, believed to be the woman's partner descending alone.
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Further footage shows a helicopter flying over the mountain to rescue the woman. Emergency crews could also be seen rushing to help.
A statement from the public prosecutor’s office on the case reads: “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. 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.”
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The man is accused of not taking his girlfriend’s lack of experience into account, given she had never done a tour of a high-altitude such as Grossglockner of this length before. He is also accused of starting approximately two hours too late as part of the planning and that he was not carrying sufficient emergency bivouac equipment.
Alongside this, he is accused of not making the emergency call to authorities in time before nightfall, not turning back in more time to seek help and failing to move his girlfriend to a sheltered space to protect her from heat loss.
The boyfriend's defence attorney ‘still assumes it was a tragic, fateful accident’.
He added to the KUIER: “My client is very sorry about how things turned out.”
Topics: Crime, Extreme Sports, Health, World News, True Crime
Lucy Devine