Man left his girlfriend to freeze to death

[Trevordidit]

Man left his girlfriend to freeze when she was struggling on a mountain hike.

He's been found guilty of manslaughter.

So many aspects of his account don't make sense - AIBU to wonder if he did it on purpose?

News article

I'm beginning to think he took her gloves off and loosened her shoes but that's just my thoughts and obviously not proovable.

I know. That's the most bizarre thing - no energy bars, nuts, bananas - nothing.
And the tea froze? How? I've just returned from Norway and I had hot water in a thermos flask which was still really hot at the end of the day, despite being out for 7-8 hours in temperatures down to -25.
So that would suggest their tea wasn't in a thermos. I know they were out longer than me but it wouldn't have frozen surely? The temperature was -8, windchill - 20.
Also, how on earth were they hiking that long with nothing to drink.

Or had they already eaten and drunk everything they brought with them and the gummy bears were all that were left by the time they got into serious difficulties.

That could be effects of hypothermia (and the virus) of course but as you rightly say, we'll never know. It crossed my mind that at some point amongst all else that was going on, possibly exacerbated by it, poor Kerstin became cragfast, but his actions make zero sense to me. Nothing I'm hearing makes me think that he was a 'great alpinist' or whatever he was described as, for sure.

Yes maybe.
Either way, leaving her in a position she could fall and injure herself (she can’t have been tied down very securely - also bearing in mind she was exhausted) and uncovered and exposed to the elements is absolutely unacceptable, inexcusable and inexplicable.
My instinct he is a nasty man and maybe he didn’t deliberately kill her but thought he’d press on to teach her a lesson or make her suffer.
The fact he decided to repeat the same actions on a new girlfriend on the same mountain a couple of years later! I cannot get past this.
I also still don’t understand the misdial to mountain rescue early evening, followed by getting stuck later on and then waving off the helicopter. As well as text to her parents. I don’t think enough was done to explore these events.

Kerstin's frozen body was dangling in an area with winds whipping so badly the helicopter couldn't rescue in early hours. The rescue was made by foot and by then it was a corpse rescue.

Eta the foot rescue were surprised her body was still intact, given the strong wind conditions still prevailing.

Yes, and this does seem very, very odd. I wouldn't go for a day in the park without taking a picnic, it seems incredibly strange to go for a significant expedition like this without proper food supplies. Did he give any explanation for this? Agree this was a shared responsibility but obviously, and tragically, she isn't around to explain.

The fact he is giving no explanation to anything is highly suspicious.

Why did you have no food? Why didn’t you leave her in a sheltered position? Why did you not call for help? Why did you not answer your phone? Why didn’t you get the bivouac out? And so on and so on. Zero explanation from him. It’s all so inexcusable

Could she have taken off her gloves to call emergency services and/ or been so uncomfortable in her shoes she had to.loosen them, also requiring her to take off gloves?
He then says he will get help, and goes off, she needs to wee, there's a fall?
Just doesn't add up many which way.

I've messaged a friend who used to climb a lot, sent him the BBC article and said did he kill her deliberately?

This is his response: Yes, what they were doing and how she was equipped etc suggests he knew exactly what he was doing. He'd done it before too.

Either deliberately by design or in the moment, i think he killed her. This is not an accident and everyone knows it.

Remember people on the ground sent the rescue helicopter up for them before they called - they knew there was a problem.

I wonder whether he thought he’d get to play the poor bereaved partner, rather than being charged with manslaughter?

The shoes alone are enough to say he didn't have good intentions.

No one with any experience would let someone go for a nice hike in snowboard boots let alone attempt actual mountaineering. They're the opposite of the boots you need.

Yeh it’s off

There are splitboard boots designed for mountaineering with crampons. She was wearing crampons.

But crampons that didn't fit properly?

It was a given that the boots weren't the right ones but they weren't just snowboard boots, they were split board boots which are designed for hiking or climbing as well as using the board.

At one point, the live tweet of the one-day trial noted that Thomas looked emotionless. Also the operations manager of the mountain task force said Thomas climbed up the same mountain a few months after the incident with a new girlfriend. He moved on quick...

What? Since the death of Kirsten he has taken a new girlfriend up the mountain?!

WTF?

Yes, apparently posted pics of this on his socials pre trial, then deleted them.

That seems utterly bizarre.

There's something wrong with him.

Also, why would any woman get together with him and then go up Großglockner with him knowing that the previous woman to do so ended up getting left up there and froze to death?
But presumably he can spin a good yarn and probably made himself out to be the victim in all of this.

Do you have a link to that?

That is so twisted! He took a new girlfriend climbing up the mountain where his last girlfriend died just a few months before?! And then posted about it on social media?! Bloody hell. He is one cold-hearted, unfeeling, inconsiderate arsehole!

Case defo seems weird but there's a lot of idle conjecture on here. Rumours that he looked 'emotionless' are neither here nor there as he would've been stood in front of loads of people in a very abnormal situation.

Some people tend to freeze when nervous. You wouldn't say a rape victim was clearly unbothered about being assaulted because they froze up and didn't do anything.

It doesn't seem to be a 'rumour', rather an observation by someone (a reporter?) at the trial. Regardless, no, him being emotionless doesn't mean anything, on its own. It's everything else that adds up to being very suspicious.

The rumour that he took a new girlfriend up the mountain pre-trial is something I'd like to see confirmed. All I've been able to find are credible reports that he posted a tribute to Kerstin on Instagram that he later deleted due to backlash, not pictures of a new girlfriend, so I'm wondering if maybe things got misunderstood? It would be very foolish of him to have done so, but perhaps he's just that lacking in empathy.