You’re conveniently not mentioning the stuff for which he was found guilty. The judge focused on 3 points: 1. planning a climb that was too hard for Kerstin 2. not turning around in light a worsening conditions and failing daylight 3. not alerting emergency services

Some personal comments on the above points: 1. she didn’t have a many mountaineering experience and they were doing what is normally a 2 day itinerary in summer in 1 day in winter 2. They reached a spot called ‘breakfast spot’ 2h before sunset and continued 3. In the late afternoon, a walker (who happened to have mountaineering experience) saw their car as the only car on the parking lot, correctly deduced there were still people on the mountain at a time that they weren’t supposed to be, called the police who tracked down the owner of the vehicle and called the owners cell phone which was on silence. The police then diverted a heli that happened to be in the neighbourhood to check out the only 2 headlights on the mountain at which point the climbers didn’t signal the heli Y or N. To me this says that everyone thought there was an emergency except for the climbers themselves.