Austrian court convicts man whose girlfriend died while climbing a mountain

Vienna– An Austrian court has convicted a man of manslaughter by gross negligence after his girlfriend froze to death as the couple attempted to climb the country’s highest peak last year.

The verdict handed down by the Innsbruck state court on Thursday night after a one-day hearing gave the 37-year-old defendant a five-month suspended sentence and a fine of 9,600 euros ($11,300), the Austrian Press Agency reports. The court did not identify him in keeping with local privacy rules.

The man and his 33-year-old girlfriend set out to climb Grossglockner in western Austria in January 2025. Prosecutors said he died about 50 metres (164 feet) below the 3,798-metre (12,460-foot) peak when he left her behind. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Judge Norbert Hofer said that the defendant had misunderstood the situation on the mountain but that he had not deliberately left his girlfriend behind – whose knowledge of mountaineering, he said, was “less than the man’s knowledge of the galaxies”. This sentence was much less than the maximum three years in prison.

“I don’t see you as a murderer; I don’t see you as a cold-hearted person,” he said, pointing to social media posts about the case. “I see you as the guy who finally tried to seek help and stand up to his girlfriend.”

However, the judge said the defendant had failed to take up his “leadership responsibility”. He said that if appropriate steps had been taken, for example, making an emergency call earlier or turning back, the woman would almost certainly have survived.

The defendant told the court he was “extremely sorry,” APA reports.

He said the couple had made all their decisions together and planned their climbs together, including the Grossglockner climb.

He argued that he himself had no formal alpine training and that his girlfriend’s knowledge was not much less than his. He said she was in good condition when a police helicopter passed over the couple during their climb and that he could not account for her condition deteriorating so rapidly. He said that he had come down to ask for help after taking advice from them.

The decision can be appealed.