Boyfriend charged with manslaughter after leaving his girlfriend to freeze to de@th on Austria’s highest mountain

 A man who left his girlfriend alone for nearly seven hours on Austrias highest mountain to get help has been charged with manslaughter after she froze to de@th. After setting off on a tour with her partner, the 33-year-old mountaineer from Salzburg d!ed on the 12,460ft Grossglockner mountain. The woman began to struggle and was unable to continue with the climb when they were 165ft from the summit, Heute reported. Her boyfriend left her alone to get help, but during this time, the extreme cold claimed her life. The investigation into the womans death is now complete, and the boyfriend, who was an experienced climber, has been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence. He is facing up to three years in prison. A statement from the prosecutors office said: At approximately 2am, the defendant left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic, and disoriented about 50 meters below the summit cross of the Groglockner. 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. After obtaining forensic reports, evaluating mobile phones, sports watches, pictures, videos, and a technical alpine technical experts assessment, prosecutors have accused the mountaineer of several errors. He allegedly did not take into account that his girlfriend was highly inexperienced and had never done an alpine high-altitude tour of this length. He was also accused of starting the tour two hours later than scheduled, while not carrying sufficient emergency equipment for the January climb. When he left his partner to get help, he allegedly did not bring her to a wind-protected place and did not use a bivouac sack or aluminium rescue blankets. The girlfriend was allegedly allowed by her boyfriend to use equipment that is deemed unsuitable among mountaineers for a high-alpine tour in mixed terrain a splitboard and soft snow boots. According to the public prosecutor, the defendant should have turned back earlier due to the harsh weather conditions, wind speeds of up to 46mph, and low temperatures. He is also accused of failing to make an emergency call before nightfall, despite the severity of his girlfriends situation. The defendant and his girlfriend were stranded from around 8.50pm. At 10.50 pm, a police helicopter flew over, but he allegedly did not give any distress signals. After several attempts by the Alpine Police to contact the boyfriend, he finally spoke to an officer just past midnight. At 3.30 am, he decided to notify rescue services. Due to strong winds, a helicopter rescue could not be carried out at dawn, but shortly after 10am, the mountain rescuers reached the victim. She was found de@d. The boyfriends lawyer, Kurt Jelinek, said in a statement to the KUIER: My client is very sorry about how things turned out.  However, the defence attorney still assumes it was a tragic, fateful accident.  The boyfriends trial is set to take place on February 19, 2026, at the Innsbruck Regional Court. The post Boyfriend charged with manslaughter after leaving his girlfriend to freeze to de@th on Austria’s highestmountain appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.