In the early morning on 19 January 2025, Kerstin Gurtner died while attempting to summit the Grossglockner in Austria with her boyfriend, Thomas Plamberger. For disputed reasons, Plamberger left Gurtner behind on the slope during the night as conditions worsened, and she died of hypothermia before rescuers could arrive. The case received attention in the press and on social media, with controversy centering on Plamberger's responsibility to protect his less-experienced partner and on the dynamics between men and women in relationships during outdoor activities.

The expedition began as an attempted single-day ascent on January 18, but the couple had been slowed by issues including problems with equipment and weather. As night fell, alpine police were notified of the couple's presence on the mountain and began rescue efforts, sending a rescue helicopter and attempting to contact Plamberger by phone. The couple did not acknowledge the helicopter and Plamberger declined help from rescuers over the phone as conditions worsened. In the early morning hours of January 19, Plamberger left Gurtner around short of the summit, according to him because he was leaving to get help, notifying rescuers that Gurtner needed help around 3 am. Gurtner died of hypothermia before she could be rescued; her body was recovered the following morning.

Plamberger was tried for negligent homicide in Gurtner's death on 19 February 2026. Andrea Bergner, an ex-girlfriend of Plamberger's, testified that he had left her behind on a different previous trip to Grossglockner. Plamberger was found guilty and was sentenced to a five-month suspended prison sentence with a 9,600 fine, which commentators described as a lenient sentence. Both Plamberger and the prosecution filed appeals.

The case sparked debate in the climbing community about individual and legal responsibility in the activity, as well as on social media, with women sharing stories of partners abandoning them in the outdoors, known as alpine divorce.

People involved

Kerstin Gurtner

Kerstin Gurtner (born 1991 or 1992), identified in court documents as "Kerstin G.", was an Austrian skier and competitive trail runner. She was 33 years old at the time of her death. Gurtner was described by her parents as a strong athlete with a tough, feisty personality who "never gave up." Her parents said she had become more active in mountaineering starting in 2020.

Thomas Plamberger

Thomas Plamberger (born 1988 or 1989), identified in court documents as "Thomas P.", is an Austrian professional chef and a hobbyist mountaineer from Salzburg. He was 36 years old at the time of Gurtner's death. He had learned mountaineering through climbing with his father, an experienced mountaineer, and by watching videos online.

He was involved in the mountaineering community online, frequently posting or commenting on mountaineering posts on Instagram and Facebook, though his relationship with this community was often unfriendly. In one example, he replied to a post by two-time Freeride World Tour champion questioning why she had not gone higher up on the face of Hoher Göll. After Gurtner's death received social media attention, Walkner replied to the post, "Because turning back when conditions become too dangerous is what distinguishes good and experienced alpinists."

Relationship

According to a friend of Gurtner, Plamberger and Gurtner had met at the trail running event near Maria Alm. Plamberger testified in court that the two of them had met online. They began dating approximately a year before the incident. With Plamberger, Gurtner began mountaineering more seriously compared to her previous interest in skiing and trail running, with Plamberger providing guidance and equipment for her learning.

Incident

Planning of the climb

Starting in December 2024, Plamberger and Gurtner made plans to summit the Grossglockner in the Central Eastern Alps. Plamberger had made the ascent "fourteen or fifteen times," according to his later recollections. Gurtner would be summiting Grossglockner for the first time, and was less experienced with alpinism in general. The two planned to complete the summit in a single day, reaching the summit after dark at 9 pm local time. By comparison, officially recommended plan for those summiting Grossglockner for the first time was to hire a guide and split the trip over two days, with a rest in the intervening night at a mountain hut for acclimation.

The couple also planned to take an alternative route to the top, known as the Stüdlgrat route, which in comparison to the normal route had difficult sections of technical climbing. The Stüdlgrat route featured a gear system of permanently fixed belays meant to assist in the use of the route, but as Gurtner and Plamberger were making the ascent in winter, most of these fixtures had been covered by snow and ice.

Plamberger and Gurtner packed light for the trip – Plamberger testified that their only packed food was gummy bears and that they had little emergency equipment. Gurtner had an emergency bivouac bag in her pack, but Plamberger did not. Gurtner also did not have her own pair of crampons, having borrowed a pair from Plamberger which did not fit her, and was using a splitboard rather than dedicated skis for the ascent, which made the skiing sections of the climb more difficult.

Attempted ascent of Grossglockner

Beginning of ascent (6:45 am — 5:00 pm)

At 6:45 am local time on 18 January 2025, Plamberger and Gurtner left the parking lot at the base of Grossglockner to begin their ascent, approximately two hours later than the recommended time for beginning an ascent of the Grossglockner. The first section of the climb is a hike to an acclimatization warming hut, referred to as the Stüdlhütte. Along this first section of the ascent, the couple met and chatted with another climber, who noted that Gurtner was lagging behind and that Plamberger was "keeping a close eye on her". By 10 am, the couple had reached and departed the Stüdlhütte warming hut.

Around 3 pm local time, Plamberger and Gurtner reached a landmark on the Stüdlgrat route known as the "Breakfast Place", which has a large yellow sign installed by local authorities, reading:

The three-hour window refers to the time since leaving the Stüdlhütte. It had taken Plamberger and Gurtner approximately five hours to complete the section. During later court testimony, Plamberger attributed the delay to the couple's heavy backpacks and to issues with a stuck rope. Despite the warning, Plamberger and Gurtner continued on the ascent.

Sun sets and weather worsens (5:00 pm — 10:30 pm)

As the sun began to set around 5 pm, Gurtner and Plamberger were still relatively low on the Stüdlgrat. At 5:22 pm, Gurtner made a call to the number "149" on her cell phone. Because the number for emergency services in the Alps is "140", and 9 and 0 are close to each other on phone keyboards, it was speculated during Plamberger's trial to mean Gurtner had attempted to call for help. Plamberger said in court that he had not known about the attempted call. Around an hour later, at 6:07 pm, Gurtner texted her mother "we're down."

Around 6:10 pm, it became completely dark and the light from Plamberger and Gurtner's headlamps became visible on live feed webcams pointed at the mountainside, placing them hundreds of feet from the summit. They continued making a slow ascent, during which time Gurtner was injured when she suffered a pendulum fall. According to court proceedings, Gurtner suffered some combination of injuries to her hand, hip and ribs during this time period.

In addition to the darkness, the weather began to dramatically worsen, as a storm began to gather around the mountain. Winds gusted to approximately and the air temperature had fallen to , meaning wind chill index had fallen to . Around 8 pm, for unknown reasons, Plamberger and Gurtner's headlamps stopped moving.

Initial rescue attempts (10:30 pm — 1:30 am)

Hours after darkness fell, another climber descending the mountain saw Gurtner and Plamberger's headlamps. He attempted to shout to communicate with the two climbers, but received no response. With conditions worsening, the climber called the Alpine Police, who assigned an officer identified by the court as Mathias A to the case. Mathias dispatched a rescue helicopter out of Salzburg to search for and rescue the climbers. The helicopter reached the couple at 10:40.

The helicopter made multiple passes, watching for Plamberger or Gurtner to make a distress hand signal, or to make an "X" shape with their arms to indicate they did not require help. However, neither Plamberger nor Gurtner acknowledged the rescue helicopter, with neither of the climbers even looking up at the helicopter hovering above them. Rather, soon after the helicopter arrived, the couple began moving again, heading towards the summit. According to Plamberger, Gurtner denied to him that she had called the rescue helicopter. After six passes, the helicopter abandoned the rescue attempt.

According to an attorney for Plamberger, after the helicopter left, Gurtner "suddenly showed increasing signs of exhaustion". According to the judge's notes on the case, during this period Gurtner could only move by crawling on all fours, an account which Plamberger declined to confirm or deny in court. In video taken from the helicopter, a five minute period is shown in which Gurtner appears to only be able to make 20 centimeters of progress over a five minute period in manageable terrain.

At 12:35 am, Plamberger called Mathias. Mathias had attempted to contact Plamberger via text message after identifying Plamberger as one of the mountaineers on Grossglockner due to his car being the only one remaining in the mountain's parking lot, and by correlating this with his climbing permit. Mathias asked Plamberger why he had not acknowledged the rescue helicopter, Plamberger responded that everything was fine. Mathias pressed to know whether they needed rescue now, which Plamberger insisted they did not. Plamberger maintained in statements that the purpose of the 12:35 call was to request a rescue for Gurtner. In court, Mathias would testify that it was "definitely not an emergency call." Mathias would continue messaging Plamberger to see if he needed help, but Plamberger did not respond, later testifying that he had put his phone on silent to save battery.

Plamberger leaves Gurtner (1:30 am — 3:30 am)

It is unclear exactly when or why Plamberger left Gurtner. According to Plamberger, at around 2 am, he left Gurtner behind to go look for help. On mountain cams, headlights reappeared around 1:30 am, on the opposite side of the mountain, where he began descending via the less difficult normal route. By 3 am, Plamberger was seen on mountain webcams moving quickly down the slope, possibly by skis.

According to Plamberger, he left Gurtner at her insistence after her condition worsened to the point that she became unable to move. He said that after securing her, he tried to lie down next to her to help provide warmth, but she yelled at him to go and find help. Before he left, Plamberger did not attempt use any of the cold weather equipment in Gurtner's pack – including a bivouac bag, a rescue blanket and hand warmers – to warm Gurtner or shelter her from the weather. He later testified that he had forgotten the emergency equipment was available due to the high-stress situation.

Shortly after 3 am, Plamberger reached a different warming hut, known as the Archduke Johann Hut, and phoned Mathias again. Mathias testified that during the first part of the call, it seemed like everything was fine, "But then he told me that he left his girlfriend on the Glockner." Mathias asked Plamberger to return to Gurtner's last position, but Plamberger declined to do so, saying he needed to rest.

Recovery of Gurtner's body (3:30 am — 10:00 am)