{"id":63000,"date":"2025-12-07T00:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T00:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/63000\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T00:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T00:49:11","slug":"kerstin-gurtner-allegedly-left-to-freeze-to-death-on-grossglockner-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/63000\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerstin Gurtner allegedly left to freeze to death on Grossglockner mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The woman who was allegedly left to freeze to death by her boyfriend<\/a> near the summit of an Austrian mountain has been identified.<\/p>\n

Kerstin Gurtner, 33, died less than 150 feet from the summit of Grossglockner mountain on Jan. 19 \u2014 both led and left there by her experienced mountaineer beau Thomas Plamberger, the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n

The Salzburg native described herself as a \u201cwinter child\u201d and a \u201cmountain person\u201d in social media profiles, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Thomas Plamberger has been charged in Kerstin Gurtner\u2019s freezing death. Kerstin Gurtner\/ Facebook<\/p>\n

Plamberger, 39, now faces negligent homicide charges for the night-time, winter excursion that saw Gurtner, an inexperienced climber, trek through over 12,000 feet in -4 degree Fahrenheit conditions up toward Austria\u2019s highest peak.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt approximately 2:00 a.m., the defendant left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic, and disoriented about 50 meters below the summit cross of the Grossglockner. 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,\u201d according to a statement from the Innsbruck public prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The couple were effectively stranded from 8:50 p.m. onwards \u2014 but Plumberger did not make an emergency call or give out any distress signals when they saw a police helicopter fly nearby at 10:50 p.m., according to prosecutors, local outlet Heute reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Webcam images showed the couple\u2019s camp near the peak of Grossglockner, where Gurtner was found dead.<\/p>\n

Plumberger only called Alpine Police officers at 1:35 a.m. and then put his phone on silent, prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n

About a half-an-hour later, he left Gurtner to die on the icy mountain \u2014 even neglecting to cover her with available emergency blankets, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Though she identified herself as a \u201cwinter child\u201d on social media,
prosecutors said Gurtner was an inexperienced hiker. Kerstin Gurtner Memorial<\/p>\n

Plamberger allegedly abandoned Gurtner near the summit of Grossglockner despite knowing she was in dire health conditions. Thomas Plamberger\/ Facebook<\/p>\n

At 2:30 a.m. he was spotted by a trail cam descending the mountain, with Gurtner left far behind near the summit.<\/p>\n

Plumberger reached out to emergency services again at 3:30 a.m., prosecutors alleged, according to the report from Heute.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Kurt Jelinek, who represents Plumberger, maintained his client\u2019s innocence and insisted Gurtner\u2019s death was a \u201ctragic, fateful accident,\u201d according to The Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

Tributes poured in for the inexperienced hiker on a memorial page<\/a> for Gurtner.<\/p>\n

A photo from socila media showed Gurtner climbing. Kerstin Gurtner Memorial<\/p>\n

The light of the couple\u2019s camp near the summit of the mountain was captured by webcam footage. foto-webcam.eu<\/p>\n

\u201cRest in heavenly peace,\u201d one commenter wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBehind the tears of grief lies the smile of remembrance,\u201d another chimed.<\/p>\n

Another said, \u201cDeeply saddened to learn of this death, I wish to express my condolences. Impossible to find the right words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plumberger was charged on Thursday, with his trial expected to kick off in February.<\/p>\n

If convicted, he could be sent to prison for up to only three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The woman who was allegedly left to freeze to death by her boyfriend near the summit of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30122,1015,29796,9,11,10,1076],"class_list":{"0":"post-63000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-austria","9":"tag-deaths","10":"tag-hiking","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}