Austrian climber found guilty after leaving girlfriend to die on mountain

[vetprob]

Reported on the BBC - verdict is in.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k1xkllknmo

I wonder if this has implications for climbing in the future or if it's country specific. They weren't in the death zone so I wonder if that makes a difference too. So many times we read about climbers being unable to help their fallen teammates.

It's still curious to me why the guy didn't leave her with some protective gear, knowing she was in trouble.

Again. You aren't just 'i know nothing' if you are carrying an emergency bivvy. He wilfully and deliberately didn't use it. In carrying it, he acknowledges he knows that you should use it in an emergency.

At -8° I'd expect him to be experiencing some degree of hypothermically-induced impaired thinking too?

Yes @FourSevenTwo it really isn't rocket science to just make that call!

Amazed btw that they had mobile reception up there. Maybe just like European roads, it's just something they do better on the continent.

The 5 years suspended sentence means he got away with it too. :-(

And yet he managed to get himself down safely enough!

I think it's altitude rather than temperature that has the worst effects on the mind. This is not really altitude sickness territory for such an experienced climber I don't think. And he doesn't seem to have used this as an excuse.

Yes, that was my point. The fact he chose not to use the emergency protections that he carried was suspicious. If he had shown that he had tried to protect her before urgently seeking help, this case probably wouldn't have ended up in court.

See, in my book that shows intent 🤷🏻‍♀️

And it did end up in court, and he got away with it.

Wonder what the rules are in Austria for challenging judges’ decisions on sentences.

It says in the bbc article that the case is subject to appeal.

He's just an alpine Oscar Pistorius.

I had an ex similar to this. He 100 percent was trying to punish her for being slow or whatever, regardless of whether he thought she would survive or not.

I saw a programme on bbc 2 last year I think, or the year before. It was a young couple, the woman was the more experienced climber, but her partner wanted to join her on some climbs. It was interesting how quickly he started to disregard her advice and start trying things that were more difficult and dangerous. It was infuriating to watch. I did wonder if they were still together after the programme.

When I first read about this case, I didn't think there was anything really odd, but the more I have read this morning has made me question it. He seemed to have so many options to get help and just didn't. Why he didn't leave her with any protection just baffles me, unless he did mean her harm, and then it should be murder and non manslaughter.

I also don’t understand the snowboard boots

Does it say anywhere how the first girlfriend got back down?

@Bruisername in another article I read it mentioned that she was carrying a splitboard to use on the descent later. So I guess she was wearing the snowboarding shoes so as not to have to carry them as well, whilst wearing the right kind of boots for climbing.

Oh interesting

I know nothing about this mountain to tell if that was sensible or not!!

I agree, sounds like he was pissed off and stormed off.

Both of them were carrying splitboards, which they had, presumably, used to climb some of the ascent and which they would have intended to use for the descent after they had summited.

There is no mention of the boots that he was wearing; presumably he also was wearing snowboard boots so that he could use his splitboard. There are snowboard boots which are designed to take crampons to be used in such circumstances. We don't know the precise nature of the boots either of them were wearing but we do know they both had the same intentions for the climb and subsequent descent. Apparently she tried to use a pair of crampons that he had brought but they either didn't fit her boots or they were faulty. The idea of not having tried the crampons on her boots before the climb is bizarre; the idea of trying to climb the mountain in winter without crampons is ridiculous. They would have discovered the crampon failure early in the climb.

Looking at the timelines for the climb, they took 9 hrs to climb about 450 m which is pretty slow going - suggesting difficulties. So long in such extreme conditions (temperature, winds, dark) will take its toll. They didn't seem to have adequate refuelling (just a bag of gummie bears?) for such a long and severe climb.

So may weird things about this story. However, we haven't listened to all the evidence; the judge was himself an experienced mountaineer, so I trust him to have understood (as much as anyone can - and much more than us who are under-informed and without the relevant experience) what was going on. Plenty of evidence of poor decisions and no evidence of him having taken much care of her. He may himself have had hypothermia affecting his decision making.

Yet, as a PP pointed out, got himself down.

Afraid I don’t trust many judges on crimes against women.

Absolutely - and he had tried it before with a previous girlfriend! I can’t believe the court was so soft on him. From the BBC report alone you can see that this had to be more than incompetence or mistakes. In his position a normal person would be absolutely desperate to get help.

This too.

I’ve been on mountains at temperatures like that. A properly dressed and equipped mountaineer will not get hypothermia.

"Argentinian twins and IFGMA guides Willie and Damian Benegas have led expeditions around the world for more than 30 years, and participated in a number of high-profile rescue operations. They pointed out that it isn’t unheard of for experienced climbers to descend alone to retrieve help, and that it’s challenging for one person to descend mountain terrain carrying the full, unresponsive weight of another. “The real mistakes began the day before,” said Damian. “The mistakes began when he decided to take her to climb this mountain, in winter, on this technical route. When they decided to leave late, knowing the weather was nasty, when they didn’t turn back sooner, and on and on.”

Willie and Damian said the most damning aspect of Plamberger’s narrative is that he doesn’t describe what went on in the gap between 1:30 p.m., when he and Gunter decided to continue up from the turnaround point at 3,550 meters (11,647ft), and 10:30 p.m.—nine hours later, and five hours after sunset—when they were still climbing, but ignored the helicopter sent to aid them. Plamberger waving off the helicopter (something he doesn’t dispute he did), at this point, is almost impossible to justify. “They were clearly in trouble,” said Willie."

https://www.climbing.com/news/climber-faces-homicide-charges-after-his-partner-dies/

That is a ridiculous statement. Properly dressed and equipped mountaineers die every year on Everest (and countless other mountains).

The pair of them were out in negative temperatures, in severe winds, on an exhausting climb, with insufficient food for over 20 hours, at altitude. Hypothermia was a risk factor. I don't know whether he had it or not but there were reports that he arrived at the hut with some clothing missing - taking clothes off when your cold is a symptom of hypothermia