I'm not sure, honestly, as I'm not a mountaineer, and the article I read it in was translated. I've just read they were a bad fit for her boots, so 'loosened' could have meant they were just ill fitting?
Translated from the above article, which is very interesting:
"When the questioning turns to the specific events in the upper third of the ridge (including the aforementioned phone call, the rescue helicopter, Kerstin G.'s condition at the time she was left behind, and the location where the body was found), Thomas P. repeatedly claims to have gaps in his memory. He states that his companion, who according to the indictment was already "incapacitated," urged him to descend alone, saying, "Go now. Go!" Previously, the defendant had testified that the decision had been made jointly.
Hofer questioned how this could have been possible given Kerstin G.'s disorientation, immobility, and complete exhaustion. Repeatedly, conflicting statements emerged regarding equipment, agreements, and the timeline of events. Among other things, it emerged that, in addition to technical errors (crampons too loose and ill-fitting) and inadequate supplies (the accused only had gummy bears for food), insufficient emergency equipment had been carried.
The defendant stated, among other things, that he did not own a bivouac sack. He claimed he was unaware that his girlfriend had brought a rescue blanket and a one-person bivouac sack. He added that he later wondered "why she hadn't used the equipment." Further questions followed, to which the defendant cited ignorance, his own unwell state of mind, or memory lapses.
Particular attention is being paid to the question of why an emergency call wasn't made when Kerstin G. could only crawl and eventually no longer move at all. The accused stated that he assumed help was already on its way. However, further calls and return calls from the emergency services went unanswered for several hours. Thomas P. stated that he neither received nor saw them."
Then another translated <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/20260220144507/www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/2026-02/grossglockner-prozess-urteil-bewaehrungsstrafe-geldstrafe/seite-2#selection-1779.0-1806.0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">article:
"They couldn't go any further on a snow-covered ramp. She collapsed on the ramp and could only continue on all fours. "I tried to talk her into continuing," says P. He got out some tea, but it was already frozen. Then he secured his girlfriend to a rocky outcrop with a sling and set off to get help. He hadn't thought about the bivouac sack in Kerstin G.'s backpack, which could have protected her from hypothermia. He had previously taken off Kerstin G.'s backpack and lay down next to her. But she told him to leave.
During the trial, Judge Hofer shows pictures taken by mountain rescue teams of the deceased when she was found. In these pictures, Kerstin G. is hanging with her feet in the air. She is tied to a rock outcrop with a sling, her body hyperextended backward, her backpack on her back and her splitboard still attached. "This position doesn't correspond with what you've said," Hofer tells the defendant. And he can't explain it.
Whatever happened that night shortly before reaching the summit of the Großglockner, it doesn't paint the defendant in a good light."