THE DAILY BEAST: Climber Whose Girlfriend Froze on Mountain Convicted in Shocking Verdict

Thomas P., who had denied criminal wrongdoing, left his girlfriend after she collapsed from exhaustion 160 feet from the mountaintop, where she later died from hypothermia.

According to prosecutors, Thomas P. was the de facto guide and made a series of mistakes, allegedly putting his phone on silent after contacting rescue services, refusing to turn back despite the weather, bringing insufficient equipment, and poorly planning.

“I am infinitely sorry for what happened,” Thomas P. said during the trial, adding that he loved Kerstin, The New York Times reported.

The climber testified that the couple had decided he would descend the mountain to get help, saying he “secured her to the rock with a rope and then climbed down.”

Kerstin died from extreme cold in the hours her boyfriend was gone and was found dead by rescuers the following morning.

“I don’t see you as a murderer, I don’t see you as cold-hearted,” Judge Norbert Hofer, himself an experienced climber, told Thomas P. during the trial, noting that Gurtner was far less experienced at climbing than Plamberger and that he should have decided to turn back.

Judge Hofer decided that Thomas P. did not leave his girlfriend behind “wilfully,” and the court told the BBC in a statement that his previous clean record and the loss of a person close to him were “mitigating factors” in the sentencing, as Thomas P. faced three years in prison for the conviction but received a less harsh sentence.

“If you had acted differently, I strongly assume that your partner would have survived,” Judge Hofer told Thomas P., who apologized for his fatal mistake.

During the trial, Thomas P.’s ex-girlfriend, Andrea B., described that she had also been left alone by him on the same mountain in 2023.

“I felt dizzy, I screamed, and I was completely alone. From then on, we didn’t go on any more hikes together,” Andrea B. said during the trial, according to The New York Times.

The case has been widely debated on social media, with Kerstin’s mother, telling the German newspaper Die Zel that the “witch hunt” against her deceased daughter’s boyfriend was “unfair.”