The climber who left his girlfriend to freeze to death at the top of Austria’s highest peak claims he begged for a helicopter to rescue them but was told sending one was impossible — hours before the couple agreed he should trek for help on his own.
Thomas Plamberger, 36, laid bare his version of events in a statement to investigators when they first started probing his involvement in his 33-year-old girlfriend Kerstin Gartner’s Jan. 18 death atop Grossglockner mountain.
In his statement, which came to light after he was charged last week, Plamberger insisted the entire “situation was hopeless” — as he questioned why it took so long for a rescue to be initiated in the first place.
Prosecutors have accused the experienced mountaineer of abandoning his ill-equipped girlfriend roughly 160 feet from the summit and leaving her to perish in -17°F temperatures when she could no longer continue the trek.
Plamberger, however, argued he first reached out to rescue crews at about 12:35 a.m. to try and arrange a helicopter rescue when his girlfriend “suddenly showed increasing signs of exhaustion.”
“A return was absolutely out of the question at that point,” he said, according to the statement.
He alleged that the officer he managed to reach via phone told him a helicopter rescue was not possible so the couple opted to keep moving in order to stay warm.
“However, the situation was hopeless: The woman was so physically exhausted that she could no longer continue the ascent,” the statement said.
He claimed the couple then jointly decided he should seek help on his own.
Plamberger said he alerted the officer at 3:30 a.m. that he had to leave his girlfriend behind and called again for a helicopter.
Rescue crews didn’t find Gartner’s frozen body until 10 a.m. the following day, he claimed — hours after he allegedly first called for help.
The mountaineer denied the timeline put out by prosecutors, including the suggestion that he failed to make an emergency call or give off any distress signals when a police helicopter flew overhead and shone lights on them at about 10:30 p.m.
He claimed the couple were well at that time and the emergency situation only began to unfold hours later.
The statement was published on his lawyer’s website months before Plamberger was charged last week.
Prosecutors have alleged Plamberger only called police at 1:35 a.m. and then set off about 30 minutes later in search of help.
“The defendant left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic, and disoriented about 50 meters [160 feet] below the summit cross of the Grossglockner,” prosecutors said.
After the charges were brought, Plamberger’s lawyer argued Gurtner’s death was a “tragic, fateful accident.”
Plamberger, who is slated to go on trial in February at the Innsbruck Regional Court, faces three years in prison if convicted.
The post Climber who left girlfriend to freeze to death on Austria’s highest peak claims couple decided he should trek for help alone but ‘situation was hopeless’ appeared first on New York Post.
