He Left Her 50 Meters From the Summit. Was It a Crime? | Disaster Strikes

He Left Her 50 Meters From the Summit. Was It a Crime? | Disaster Strikes

In January 2025, Thomas Plamberger and his girlfriend Kerstin Gurtner set out to climb the Grossglockner — Austria's highest peak — on a technical winter route they had planned together. What happened over the next sixteen hours would result in Kerstin's death from hypothermia, a forensic investigation using GPS watch data and confiscated phones, a surprise courtroom witness with a story eerily similar to Kerstin's, and a verdict that sent shockwaves through the international climbing community. In this episode, Julie and Kaycee walk through the documented timeline minute by minute — the equipment choices, the missed helicopter, the calls that weren't made — and bring in the medical realities of what Kerstin's body was experiencing in those final hours on the mountain. The case raises a question that has no clean answer: when two adults choose to climb together, at what point does one of them become legally responsible for the other? The court gave its answer in February 2026. Whether it was the right one is still being debated. 00:00 Patreon Mention
00:34 Disaster Strikes Intro
01:38 Cold Open On The Ridge
03:05 Case And Legal Question
04:13 Meet Thomas And Kirsten
06:26 Ascent Plan And Early Delays
08:23 Missed Call And Warning Signs
10:02 Helicopter Flyover No Signal
11:18 Gear Illness And Deterioration
12:58 Leaving Her And Rescue Timeline
19:36 Investigation And Trial Twist
23:11 Verdict And Family Response
28:30 Why This Case Changes Climbing
30:28 Final Reflections And Goodbye Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreaon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcast Email us! thecruxsurvival@gmail.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/ Get schooled by Julie in outdoor wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/ KEY REFERENCES:
  1. Climbing Magazine — "Climber Faces Homicide Charges After His Partner Dies. When Does a Bad Decision Become a Crime?" (December 8, 2025)
  2. Climbing Magazine — "Austrian Climber Found Guilty After Girlfriend Dies of Hypothermia on Grossglockner Mountain" (February 20, 2026)
  3. CNN — "Climber Accused of Leaving Girlfriend to Die on Austria's Tallest Mountain Goes on Trial" (February 19, 2026)
  4. Irish Times — "Alpine Climber Guilty of Manslaughter Over Girlfriend's Death on Austrian Mountain" (February 19, 2026)
  5. Irish Times — "Climber Found Guilty of Manslaughter After Leaving Girlfriend on Austrian Mountain" (February 20, 2026)
  6. Global News — "Climber Convicted of Manslaughter After Leaving Girlfriend to Die on Mountain" (February 20, 2026)
  7. Global News — "Man Charged with Manslaughter After Girlfriend Freezes to Death on Austrian Mountain" (December 13, 2025)
  8. The Daily Beast — "Climber Whose Girlfriend Froze on Mountain Convicted in Shocking Verdict" (February 2026)
  9. LBC News — "Climber Who Left Girlfriend to Die on Austria's Biggest Mountain Spared Jail After Being Found Guilty of Manslaughter" (February 2026)
  10. LADbible — "Man Goes on Trial for 'Leaving Girlfriend to Freeze to Death' on Top of Mountain" (February 19, 2026)
  11. LADbible — "Man Accused of 'Leaving Girlfriend to Freeze to Death' on Mountain Allegedly Abandoned Ex in Same Place" (February 19, 2026)
  12. NewsNation — "Climber Guilty of Manslaughter After Leaving Girlfriend on Austrian Mountain" (February 2026)
  13. KCRG / AP — "Court Convicts Climber Whose Girlfriend Froze to Death After He Left Her Behind on Mountain" (February 21, 2026)
  14. Die Zeit (Germany) — Interview with Gertraud Gurtner (Kerstin's mother) (February 2026)
  15. Innsbruck Public Prosecutor's Office — Formal charging documents and prosecutorial statements (December 2025)
  16. Innsbruck Regional Court — Verdict and judicial statements, Judge Norbert Hofer (February 20, 2026)

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.

Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcast
Email us! thecruxsurvival@gmail.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/
Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(264)

Alone After Dark: A Fatal Grizzly Encounter in Glacier National Park | E265

Alone After Dark: A Fatal Grizzly Encounter in Glacier National Park | E265

A late-afternoon hike in Glacier National Park seemed simple enough: climb toward the Mount Brown Fire Lookout, watch the sunset, and head back down.But as darkness settled over Mount Brown, 33-year-o...

24 Sep 37min

15 Minutes in a Cougar's Jaws | E 264

15 Minutes in a Cougar's Jaws | E 264

On February 17, 2024, five experienced cyclists set out on a familiar gravel-bike route through Washington's Cascade foothills. Nineteen miles into their ride, two cougars appeared on the trail. Secon...

21 Sep 37min

3 Hours in the Heat: The Ultramarathoner Who Vanished in Plain Sight  | Disaster Strikes E263

3 Hours in the Heat: The Ultramarathoner Who Vanished in Plain Sight | Disaster Strikes E263

Philip Kreycik was 37, a Harvard graduate, an ultramarathoner, and an experienced outdoorsman. On July 10, 2021, he left for a training run at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park in California, telling his...

10 Sep 21min

15-Year-Old Alone on Kit Carson Peak: A 200-Foot Fall | E262

15-Year-Old Alone on Kit Carson Peak: A 200-Foot Fall | E262

A 15-year-old hiker set out on an ambitious three-day backpacking trip through Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, planning to summit four 14ers. He successfully climbed Challenger Point and Kit Ca...

7 Sep 34min

Lost in the Outback for 43 Days: The Man Who Didn't Want to be Found | E261

Lost in the Outback for 43 Days: The Man Who Didn't Want to be Found | E261

When tourists found an abandoned bicycle on a remote track in Australia's Great Sandy Desert, it triggered one of the strangest missing person searches in outback history — police, aircraft, and Abori...

31 Aug 36min

The 1967 Denali Disaster: 7 Climbers Trapped Above 19,000 Feet | Disaster Strikes E 260

The 1967 Denali Disaster: 7 Climbers Trapped Above 19,000 Feet | Disaster Strikes E 260

In July 1967, only 213 people had ever stood on the summit of Denali. When an inexperienced climbing team was denied a permit, the National Park Service made an unusual decision: merge them with a str...

27 Aug 23min

A Four-Hour Float, Three Days Lost | E 259

A Four-Hour Float, Three Days Lost | E 259

A summer tubing trip on Michigan’s Muskegon River was supposed to last just four hours. But when two women and a nine-year-old boy failed to return, a massive search and rescue operation began.Boats, ...

24 Aug 46min

119 Days Upside Down; Trapped Inside the Capsized Rose-Noëlle | E258

119 Days Upside Down; Trapped Inside the Capsized Rose-Noëlle | E258

At 6 AM on June 4, 1989, a wave the skipper estimated at sixty feet flipped the trimaran Rose-Noëlle upside down off New Zealand’s East Cape, trapping four men — a self-taught sailor sleeping aboard e...

17 Aug 36min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
popradet
aftenpodden-usa
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
rss-espen-lee-usensurert
grenselos
wolfgang-wee-uncut
min-barneoppdragelse
bokmerket-2
alt-fortalt
synnve-og-vanessa
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
fladseth
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-herrepanelet
krisemoter