Climber Identified In Fatal Grossglockner Abandonment Case

A 33-year-old woman tragically died in January while climbing Austria’s highest peak, the Grossglockner. At the time, news arrived that bad weather moved in and her partner, an experienced mountaineer, abandoned her to freeze to death. Read on for more updates about the true crime case that made international headlines.

The Victim’s Name Released

The identification news arrived via the Daily Mail UK on Saturday this weekend. She’s been named as Kerstin Gurtner, who hailed from Salzburg, Austria. The outlet noted that she shared many photos of mountains on social media, and she described herself as a “winter child” and a “mountain person.” 

Thomas Plamberger also shared a lot of photos on his social media, and apparently, he was also very experienced in mountaineering. However, he left his girlfriend alone in the freezing cold, and she subsequently passed away. Talking about the investigation, it wasn’t only bad weather, but the pair were apparently ill-equipped for climbing that day.

Plamberger’s Alleged Errors

Plamberger made several errors, according to those who investigated the case of Kerstin Gurtner. The media outlet cited their findings as “the couple were poorly equipped—Kerstin was wearing snowboard soft boots instead of proper hiking footwear—and officials say her boyfriend ‘turned away’ despite a helicopter flying low over the area.”

Naturally, Thomas is claiming he didn’t deliberately abandon Kerstin to her death. Instead, he claimed that he went off to look for help. But inexplicably, at one stage, he allegedly didn’t call Alpine Rescue Services. Although she loved mountains, apparently, she wasn’t experienced in such high altitude conditions, but Plamberger was. But, he didn’t take all the equipment they might need, including a simple thermal blanket.

Charges of negligent homicide have been filed and his court case will happen in January of 2026.

Readers React

When the New York Post shared their story on Instagram, plenty of people wanted to comment on the sad loss of the young woman. One of them wrote, “Don’t know the story but a real man would have brought her down whether she was injured or had died. No excuses!”

Here are a few more responses from the discussion:

• It’s like taking your wife “sailing” and she never comes back.
• I think she was probably too weak to move, and he had no chance to carry her. So he left to go get help. That’s just my guess.
• If this wasn’t intentional, it must have been the worst and hardest choice. She might have begged him to go and save himself, who knows.
• Nobody knows the full story so save your judgment until you get some more facts about the case

What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments below and come back here often for all your true crime news and updates.