Overview
- Judge Norbert Hofer said the victim’s skills were "galaxies" below the defendant’s and that she likely would have survived with earlier retreat or an emergency call.
- Prosecutors cited nine key errors, including a late start, unsuitable splitboard and soft boots, failure to shelter her or use a bivouac sack and foil blankets, and no distress signal to an overflying police helicopter.
- Phone and webcam evidence underpinned a contested timeline that included an unclear 12:35 a.m. call to police, the phone then being unreachable, and footage of his headlamp descending alone.
- Investigators said he left her about 50 meters below the summit around 2 a.m.; mountain rescue found her dead from hypothermia later that morning in high winds and subzero wind‑chill conditions.
- The verdict is subject to appeal, and the case is intensifying scrutiny of how Austria’s duty‑of‑care doctrine applies to leadership and responsibility in high‑risk mountain sports.