Jesus Christ. Someone’s gotta hold this guy responsible for getting her into an unwinnable situation. If you’re experienced in alpine terrain, you 110% know better.
Gotta admire her courage for even being willing to attempt this though. RIP.
It doesn’t sound like she has close to the same experience level. When you’re a vet, you’re expected to set the standard for safety of the people in your group
And yet that doesn't make her brave. The sheer lack of preparedness indicates neither of these people had any common sense. He should be held responsible but she certainly shouldn't be admired.
Bro my fiancé won’t even go glamping past September
So she knows her limitations and doesn't blindly walk into situations she can't handle? That's admirable.
Respectfully, you can go fuck yourself on this contrarian opinion lol
I'm sorry, if I knew you were such an enormous baby I wouldn't have said anything. But with skin as thin as yours, I'd suggest you avoid cold weather hiking.
Didn’t. And I’m not threatening you. But I am pointing out the reality that you’d never publicly say this and not expect repercussions. You’re doing so because you’re anonymous and don’t need to face the backlash
You did. It's still in my notifications but keep pretending, little guy.
I didn't say anything unreasonable and only a thin skinned psycho would counter what I said with violence. So I guess we all know what kind of person you are.
She wasn't wearing "everyday" soft boots. She would have been wearing "soft" snowboard boots that would have been compatible with her splitboard bindings.
The soft boot from the article is probably a misstranslation from German. The soft boots refer to resort specific snowboard boots that are fine for chill ski tours but completely unsuitable for this kind of mountaineering.
In this context, for a ski tour of this technicality, a snowboarder should have been using either dedicated touring snowboard boots or hard boots, that are basically modified ski boots. Both of these would offer a walk mode with stiff soles and compatability with crampons.
Having read the article its honestly awful. For a person of his experience to have taken her out there and left her like he did is devastating. I have a light, packable, reusable two person bivvy that would have probably kept her alive if he'd found her a sheltered spot. It doesn't leave my ski touring pack.
Source: I was a recreational ski tourer in the Canadian Rockies for quite a few winters.
I don't know enough about this case to say so for sure, but with all the "errors" the article describes given how experienced the boyfriend was, and how conveniently they all contributed to this woman's death, it really sounds like murder.
Firstly he was super experienced, and was said that the mountain they summited was what he described as his training ground (so very familiar with this summit & mountain). Now the other things - on the webcam facing the mountain it was seen that they stopped making progress around 20:50 ; a rescue helicopter circled them around 22:00 but he didn't signal a distress to them. He then makes a call to an off duty alpine police past midnight, hangs up and turns his phone on silent. The alpine police call his phone multiple times but he doesn't answer. He leaves his partner to summit & descend the other side 'to get help', but he leaves her exposed to the elements and doesn't put her in the bivac or wrap her in the aluminum blanket she had.
Not only that but they started the hike 2 hours late, which he - being experienced- should have known it was too late to summit (and there were signs stating this as well).
Idk how you pass off putting your phone on silent and putting it away so rescuers can’t make contact after abandoning your significantly less experienced partner in life threatening danger as a mere “error”, to me manslaughter seems like undercharging but I know nothing about the Austrian legal system
I'm not a mountaineer so I realize this might be a super duper dumb question: why did he descend the long route instead of going back the same way? That seems like such an "I don't care if you're actually rescued" approach, in addition to the other apparent lack of effort to get help. Is this one of those one-way trails some mountains have because there's too much technical terrain with too many people?
The Austrian law does rarely have really long prison sentences - voluntary manslaughter is a maximum of 10 years, involuntary manslaughter (which is the case here according to Austrian newspapers if I translated it correctly - German is my native language, but I am no law expert, the German term is "grob fahrlässige Tötung", please correct me if I am wrong) it is a maximum of 3 years.
There are "lifelong" prison sentences for things like homicide, it says "10 or 20 years or lifelong", however, lifelong is an average sentence of 21 years.
Unfortunately, the article leaves out many important details. First of all, her boyfriend did not have any emergency bivouac equipment with him, which is an absolute must in those temperatures. He sent his girlfriend off in snowboard soft boots for example and he didn’t leave her in a sheltered spot out of the wind (again with no Equipment).
He was also not the first one to call for help — other mountaineers who had seen lights on the mountain made the emergency call.
The helicopter that was sent out did not recognize an emergency, because the man did not signal one (I assume the girlfriend was no longer able to do so). The rescuers managed to reach him once, but afterwards he put his phone on silent and descended on his own. What exactly was said is not known. Because of the wind, the helicopter was no longer able to rescue the woman, so a search party set out on foot.
His girlfriend could only be recovered in the early morning hours, already deceased.
Well the article says he purposely put his phone on silent after leaving her and not attempting to make contact with police. Sure seems like he left her to die.
The article says he turned his phone off. Then it says he put his phone on silent. This is a daily mail piece. Which means it's surface level dogshit and should be treated as such
I climb mountains regularly. Hi altitude.
I can understand why he turned the phone off (in cold conditions the battery dies quickly), but all the other things, I can't understand: bad preparation, bad timing, bad equipment, not warning the heli with help signals, not putting the girlfriend in security with a shelter or at least in a wind unexposed area and so on.
A lot of stupidity and negligence here. Also in altitude your brain stops working as usual so that may explain the issues when things went wrong but not everything related to preparation or organization.
The problem here is really how the daily mail frames it. They're good at clickbait and ragebait and not much else. They're essentially saying "asshole takes girlfriend into the mountains and leaves her to die." Then sprinkling some half facts from a cursory google search without diving into anything like an actual journalist, but making sure to sprinkle in phrases like "abandoned" and "left her alone." The reality of the situation is closer to "overconfident and underprepared climber gets his inexperienced girlfriend killed when shit goes south." What happened on the mountain is borderline irrelevant because of his lack of preparation before they set off. No contingency plan, no emergency equipment, poor equipment choices for her, etc. They're charging him with being a negligent guide and the resulting death. Not bringing his girlfriend into the mountains to kill her, which is what the article would lead you to believe
Wondered the same, but another source says the boyfriend has already been charged with like the German version of negligent homicide, so guessing there were options.
Why though. Why couldn't he just break up with her? Not like he can even say it was for money. He's not entitled to anything. What a stupid, ignorant, county move, regardless of intention. He's a pos even if he didn't mean for her to die. If that wasn't his intention, then he was so, absolutely selfish he couldn't even think of her long enough to put a blanket on her. Fuck this guy.
Im not saying that he wanted to murder her, but i can see a story where a few unfortunate events conspired to make this shitty situation happen.
The man is to blame for the situation that happened, but i wouldnt be so fast to accuse him that it was intentional, but maybe rather just really irresponsible and accidental.
Maybe he descended to get help, and then realized that they cant be reached by helicopter and there was nothing left to do? how could he have helped her if he stayed with her? they could have both died, we dont know the details.
His phone maybe also died? who can say that he has put it on silent?
im not defending anyone but who knows what happened.
Why am I supposed to feel bad for people who intentionally put themselves into deadly situations just for an adrenaline high? It's sheer nonsense. It's an environment that largely isn't hospitable for humans. Don't go. It's that fucking simple.
Why am I supposed to feel bad for people who intentionally dive into toxic comment sections just for a dopamine hit? It’s sheer nonsense. It’s a digital environment that largely isn’t hospitable for nuance or sanity. Don’t engage. It’s that fucking simple.
Lol this is actually just sad to read. Enjoy your office chair that has the shape of your ass molded to it while others partake on one of the most statistically safe outdoor activities you can do.
You're not. And nor do climbers expect your sympathy. Climbers usually understand full well the risks of what they do and would not expect non climbers to empathise with the compulsion to do something so difficult. In most circumstances they do everything they can to mitigate the inherent risk in the sport/pastime. But things can always go wrong.
You certainly don’t deserve sympathy. Make sure you don’t have an accident or don’t get attacked. Chances are that people will either not care or enjoy a POS getting what they asked for.
She was 33, the murder charges seem so bizarre to me - just don't climb mountains if you don't know what you're doing, don't continue if you're feeling incapable, don't do incredibly dangerous shit if you aren't adequately prepared.
Regarding the partner, most stuff points to her family pressing charges to avoid admitting she was an idiot.
People in hypothermic states will strip all clothing off sometimes, against all survival instincts, it's not the partners job to babysit a grown woman in perilous conditions - it sucks so bad that she lost her life this way but unless there is something more substantial being left out of these articles I can't imagine it being seen as murder.
Did you miss the part where the partner turned his phone on silent after leaving her on the mountaintop? Or where it said he was a lifelong, experienced climber and she was a complete novice? Also it’s not murder it’s manslaughter…
They were ascending at 6 pm? In December? Yeah, it's murder
And she was wearing everyday soft boots.
Jesus Christ. Someone’s gotta hold this guy responsible for getting her into an unwinnable situation. If you’re experienced in alpine terrain, you 110% know better.
Gotta admire her courage for even being willing to attempt this though. RIP.
He should be in prison for his stupidity but she should be admired for hers. Got it.
It doesn’t sound like she has close to the same experience level. When you’re a vet, you’re expected to set the standard for safety of the people in your group
And yet that doesn't make her brave. The sheer lack of preparedness indicates neither of these people had any common sense. He should be held responsible but she certainly shouldn't be admired.
Bro my fiancé won’t even go glamping past September
Respectfully, you can go fuck yourself on this contrarian opinion lol
So she knows her limitations and doesn't blindly walk into situations she can't handle? That's admirable.
I'm sorry, if I knew you were such an enormous baby I wouldn't have said anything. But with skin as thin as yours, I'd suggest you avoid cold weather hiking.
Lol why did you delete your comment tough guy? Did you realize that threatening strangers online makes you look exactly as thin skinned as you are?
Didn’t. And I’m not threatening you. But I am pointing out the reality that you’d never publicly say this and not expect repercussions. You’re doing so because you’re anonymous and don’t need to face the backlash
You did. It's still in my notifications but keep pretending, little guy.
I didn't say anything unreasonable and only a thin skinned psycho would counter what I said with violence. So I guess we all know what kind of person you are.
She wasn't wearing "everyday" soft boots. She would have been wearing "soft" snowboard boots that would have been compatible with her splitboard bindings.
The soft boot from the article is probably a misstranslation from German. The soft boots refer to resort specific snowboard boots that are fine for chill ski tours but completely unsuitable for this kind of mountaineering.
In this context, for a ski tour of this technicality, a snowboarder should have been using either dedicated touring snowboard boots or hard boots, that are basically modified ski boots. Both of these would offer a walk mode with stiff soles and compatability with crampons.
Having read the article its honestly awful. For a person of his experience to have taken her out there and left her like he did is devastating. I have a light, packable, reusable two person bivvy that would have probably kept her alive if he'd found her a sheltered spot. It doesn't leave my ski touring pack.
Source: I was a recreational ski tourer in the Canadian Rockies for quite a few winters.
[deleted]
Dude… it says Austrian….
Source: am Australian who can read 😭😂
That's nice but it's winter in Austria ;)
so if you reread the post this is not in fact about australia
Ah yes, Australia's famous Grossglockner peak.
Let's put anotha shrimp on the bahhbeee
We don’t say that 😂
A ding-o ate my ba-bay
Has anyone seen my fiancée?! I have lost my fiancée, the poor baby…
It's a Dumb and Dumber reference
which is a reference to an advertisement made by Paul Hogan in the 80s, popularized because it was aimed at the US tourist market.
Australians don't use the word "shrimp", so it has always caused confusion
I went on a date to a karaoke bar with a man who was telling me about the place and said the bartender was from Australia.
Before I actually got a chance to meet her, she got up and sang a flawless, “99 Luft Balloons”.
Never went on another date with him.
Oh my.
Not funny or accurate.
It's winter in Austria, this incident happened last winter (January? February?).
I don't know enough about this case to say so for sure, but with all the "errors" the article describes given how experienced the boyfriend was, and how conveniently they all contributed to this woman's death, it really sounds like murder.
agree. x1000. its all pretty suspicious.
Can you expound on the errors?
Firstly he was super experienced, and was said that the mountain they summited was what he described as his training ground (so very familiar with this summit & mountain). Now the other things - on the webcam facing the mountain it was seen that they stopped making progress around 20:50 ; a rescue helicopter circled them around 22:00 but he didn't signal a distress to them. He then makes a call to an off duty alpine police past midnight, hangs up and turns his phone on silent. The alpine police call his phone multiple times but he doesn't answer. He leaves his partner to summit & descend the other side 'to get help', but he leaves her exposed to the elements and doesn't put her in the bivac or wrap her in the aluminum blanket she had. Not only that but they started the hike 2 hours late, which he - being experienced- should have known it was too late to summit (and there were signs stating this as well).
Thanks for expounding on the expoundation
I wonder about the motive
Idk how you pass off putting your phone on silent and putting it away so rescuers can’t make contact after abandoning your significantly less experienced partner in life threatening danger as a mere “error”, to me manslaughter seems like undercharging but I know nothing about the Austrian legal system
I recommend reading the article(s)
I thought you meant the errors the publication made not the errors the boyfriend made. With this understanding I have to agree with you.
Communicated with rescuers one time, 4 hours into them being stranded, said he put his phone on silent and didn’t check it again.
Totally normal in a desperate attempt to save the love of his life.
It definitely looks like this was intentional.
I'm not a mountaineer so I realize this might be a super duper dumb question: why did he descend the long route instead of going back the same way? That seems like such an "I don't care if you're actually rescued" approach, in addition to the other apparent lack of effort to get help. Is this one of those one-way trails some mountains have because there's too much technical terrain with too many people?
Exactly, the Stüdlgrat is difficult terrain that makes it virtually impossible to get back down - the only way is up.
Understood. That truly sucks. I guess that's why they didn't turn back if/when she started showing signs of "can't do this".
How is he only getting up to 3 years in prison?
The Austrian law does rarely have really long prison sentences - voluntary manslaughter is a maximum of 10 years, involuntary manslaughter (which is the case here according to Austrian newspapers if I translated it correctly - German is my native language, but I am no law expert, the German term is "grob fahrlässige Tötung", please correct me if I am wrong) it is a maximum of 3 years.
There are "lifelong" prison sentences for things like homicide, it says "10 or 20 years or lifelong", however, lifelong is an average sentence of 21 years.
Read the article and you’ll find out
Did he really leave her to die? Or was there no other option than for him to climb down to seek help? Poor souls.
Unfortunately, the article leaves out many important details. First of all, her boyfriend did not have any emergency bivouac equipment with him, which is an absolute must in those temperatures. He sent his girlfriend off in snowboard soft boots for example and he didn’t leave her in a sheltered spot out of the wind (again with no Equipment).
He was also not the first one to call for help — other mountaineers who had seen lights on the mountain made the emergency call.
The helicopter that was sent out did not recognize an emergency, because the man did not signal one (I assume the girlfriend was no longer able to do so). The rescuers managed to reach him once, but afterwards he put his phone on silent and descended on his own. What exactly was said is not known. Because of the wind, the helicopter was no longer able to rescue the woman, so a search party set out on foot.
His girlfriend could only be recovered in the early morning hours, already deceased.
Thank you for adding a lot of context that the article and this thread are missing. It makes a very ambiguous situation much more clear.
Well the article says he purposely put his phone on silent after leaving her and not attempting to make contact with police. Sure seems like he left her to die.
[deleted]
So, you didn’t read the article then
The article says he turned his phone off. Then it says he put his phone on silent. This is a daily mail piece. Which means it's surface level dogshit and should be treated as such
I climb mountains regularly. Hi altitude. I can understand why he turned the phone off (in cold conditions the battery dies quickly), but all the other things, I can't understand: bad preparation, bad timing, bad equipment, not warning the heli with help signals, not putting the girlfriend in security with a shelter or at least in a wind unexposed area and so on. A lot of stupidity and negligence here. Also in altitude your brain stops working as usual so that may explain the issues when things went wrong but not everything related to preparation or organization.
The problem here is really how the daily mail frames it. They're good at clickbait and ragebait and not much else. They're essentially saying "asshole takes girlfriend into the mountains and leaves her to die." Then sprinkling some half facts from a cursory google search without diving into anything like an actual journalist, but making sure to sprinkle in phrases like "abandoned" and "left her alone." The reality of the situation is closer to "overconfident and underprepared climber gets his inexperienced girlfriend killed when shit goes south." What happened on the mountain is borderline irrelevant because of his lack of preparation before they set off. No contingency plan, no emergency equipment, poor equipment choices for her, etc. They're charging him with being a negligent guide and the resulting death. Not bringing his girlfriend into the mountains to kill her, which is what the article would lead you to believe
Sure, but in an emergency situation where your partner could die?! That's just plain dumb and maybe even malicious.
Wondered the same, but another source says the boyfriend has already been charged with like the German version of negligent homicide, so guessing there were options.
Why though. Why couldn't he just break up with her? Not like he can even say it was for money. He's not entitled to anything. What a stupid, ignorant, county move, regardless of intention. He's a pos even if he didn't mean for her to die. If that wasn't his intention, then he was so, absolutely selfish he couldn't even think of her long enough to put a blanket on her. Fuck this guy.
Im not saying that he wanted to murder her, but i can see a story where a few unfortunate events conspired to make this shitty situation happen.
The man is to blame for the situation that happened, but i wouldnt be so fast to accuse him that it was intentional, but maybe rather just really irresponsible and accidental.
Maybe he descended to get help, and then realized that they cant be reached by helicopter and there was nothing left to do? how could he have helped her if he stayed with her? they could have both died, we dont know the details.
His phone maybe also died? who can say that he has put it on silent?
im not defending anyone but who knows what happened.
I mean, if you'd read about this case, you'd know the answers.
His phone didn't die. He silenced it and didn't respond to calls attempting to assist them.
He was very experienced and she was a novice. He allowed her to wear and use equipment that was completely unsafe for the activity.
The weather was bad and he still went out with her.
He left her in an unprotected area when he descended.
He had a foil blanket that could have protected her but he didn't give it to her.
He failed to signal to a helicopter overhead that they needed rescuing.
He delayed her rescue by failing to notify them of her still being out there promptly.
He needs to be removed from society.
Here's an idea. Stop climbing mountains. I have no sympathy for these people.
Is there a more 2025 attitude than this?
Why am I supposed to feel bad for people who intentionally put themselves into deadly situations just for an adrenaline high? It's sheer nonsense. It's an environment that largely isn't hospitable for humans. Don't go. It's that fucking simple.
I hope you enjoy your couch.
W response
You know there's thousands of things you can do besides climbing a mountain, right?
Like what, yell at people from a computer?
What do you do for fun?
He’s a keyboard warrior
Why am I supposed to feel bad for people who intentionally dive into toxic comment sections just for a dopamine hit? It’s sheer nonsense. It’s a digital environment that largely isn’t hospitable for nuance or sanity. Don’t engage. It’s that fucking simple.
Copy pasta
Lol this is actually just sad to read. Enjoy your office chair that has the shape of your ass molded to it while others partake on one of the most statistically safe outdoor activities you can do.
You're not. And nor do climbers expect your sympathy. Climbers usually understand full well the risks of what they do and would not expect non climbers to empathise with the compulsion to do something so difficult. In most circumstances they do everything they can to mitigate the inherent risk in the sport/pastime. But things can always go wrong.
Who said anyone was asking you to feel sorry for them?
bro has no life
Asmond gold ass take
You certainly don’t deserve sympathy. Make sure you don’t have an accident or don’t get attacked. Chances are that people will either not care or enjoy a POS getting what they asked for.
Right….
I think you lack a significant amount of context
okay sociopath
Maybe just stop climbing mountains under unsafe conditions. You gotta live somehow.
Up voting not because I think you're right, but because I love the unhinged energy you bring to this post. Bravo.
Optical illusion 🤣
She was 33, the murder charges seem so bizarre to me - just don't climb mountains if you don't know what you're doing, don't continue if you're feeling incapable, don't do incredibly dangerous shit if you aren't adequately prepared.
Regarding the partner, most stuff points to her family pressing charges to avoid admitting she was an idiot.
People in hypothermic states will strip all clothing off sometimes, against all survival instincts, it's not the partners job to babysit a grown woman in perilous conditions - it sucks so bad that she lost her life this way but unless there is something more substantial being left out of these articles I can't imagine it being seen as murder.
Did you miss the part where the partner turned his phone on silent after leaving her on the mountaintop? Or where it said he was a lifelong, experienced climber and she was a complete novice? Also it’s not murder it’s manslaughter…