California’s famous and fearsome Mt. Shasta has claimed another victim — a 45-year-old Argentinian hiker who lost track of the trail and slid around 2,000 feet down the face of a steep glacier.
Matias Augusto Travizano successfully summited the mountain on Sept. 12. But on the way back down, he veered off trail and found himself trapped alongside another hiker on an ice sheet on the northern tip of Wintun Glacier at around 13,500 feet in elevation, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office.
Realizing they had lost their way, the men attempted a controlled slide down the glacier to the safety of the trail below.
But Travizano lost his grip on the steep and icy surface. He started sliding out of control, collided with a boulder and lost consciousness, authorities said.
As his companion approached, Travizano began to regain consciousness. But his movements accidentally dislodged him from the rock and he slid down the rest of the glacier face, disappearing from sight.
A third hiker placed a 911 call, and crews from the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team, U.S. Forest Service Climbing Rangers and California Highway Patrol Northern Air Operations responded to help find Travizano.
A couple hours later, the CHP’s aerial team found his body near the base of the glacier.
Travizano was descending the mountain via the Clear Creek Trail, which is known as the easiest route on the mountain. But officials warn that the trail is nonetheless treacherous.
“It’s hard to regain the trail coming back down and lot of people wander off into more dangerous drainages,” said sheriff’s spokesperson Sage Milestone. “If you are not familiar with the terrain, and if you have poor visibility, it’s easy to get lost.”
Just one month ago, on Aug. 16, a 50-year-old man fell to his death after becoming disoriented while descending the Clear Creek Trail during a summer snowstorm.
“When people are looking at easy routes to climb Shasta, that’s generally the one that pops up, and there’s real hazards with it,” Milestone said. “None of those routes are inherently safe.”
Milestone said it’s been a particularly stormy summer at the top of Mt. Shasta and it was cloudy and overcast the day of Travizano’s fall.
The towering 14,179-foot stratovolcano in Northern California’s Cascade Range averages about one death a year, according to the U.S. Forest Service. But it remains popular with climbers, drawing about 5,000 to 6,000 summit attempts a year due to its easy road accessibility, adventurous terrain and stunning views of snowcapped peaks and rolling forests.
So far this year, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office has coordinated 15 rescue missions on Mt. Shasta, six of which required search-and-rescue teams on the ground and nine of which were completed using CHP Northern Air Operations to extract hikers via helicopter, Milestone said.
Milestone said one of the most important safety precautions is to have a climbing partner. Travizano was climbing by himself, but he fortunately had other hikers around him, one of whom called 911 for help after he fell, she said. It’s also essential for hikers to have a high-quality GPS or map to ensure they do not veer off trail.
“Do not take for granted that it’s kind of a beginner mountain climber’s mountain, because there are a lot of hazards up there and especially with weather,” she said. “The summit conditions can change really dramatically, even if it seems like a mild day down on the ground.”
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