An Argentinian tech entrepreneur plunged 3,000 feet to his death while descending from Mount Shasta in northern California last week, officials confirmed.Matias Augusto Travizano, 45, co-founder and former CEO of San Francisco-based data analytics firm GranData, had successfully summited the 14,162-foot mountain on September 12 before tragedy struck during his descent, according to the Siskiyou County sheriff’s office.
A fatal wrong turn
Travizano, accompanied by two strangers he met on the climb, initially followed the Clear Creek Trail, considered one of the “safer” non-technical routes. But he and one of the climbers strayed from the trail and ended up stranded on the icy and hazardous Wintun Glacier at around 13,500 feet.The pair attempted to perform a controlled slide down the glacier to reach safer ground, witnesses told authorities. Travizano struck a boulder about 300 feet below, knocking him unconscious for nearly ten minutes.Though he regained consciousness, he slipped again — this time plunging over an edge and disappearing from view. His body was later recovered near the glacier’s base, at about 10,200 feet, by a California Highway Patrol helicopter unit.
Sheriff’s warning on ‘safer’ route
Officials noted that even Mount Shasta’s most popular trails can be treacherous in poor visibility.“While the Clear Creek Route is considered one of the mountain’s ‘safer’ trails to summit, climbers can become disoriented in low-visibility conditions, particularly when descending from the summit plateau,” the sheriff’s office said, according to the Chronicle.“Once off the trail, these climbers often wander into more hazardous areas in the Ash Creek or Mud Creek drainages, where accidents are more likely to occur.”Once off-trail, officials added, climbers often wander into dangerous glacial drainages where accidents are far more likely.
