An Argentine tech executive who was an avid climber fell thousands of feet to his death earlier this month when he lost his way on a glacier while descending from the summit of Mount Shasta in Northern California, the authorities said.
The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Thursday that the executive, Matias Augusto Travizano, 45, was one of three climbers to successfully reach the summit of the mountain on the morning of Sept. 12. The summit, at just over 14,100 feet above sea level, is the fifth-highest mountain in California and the second-highest in the Cascade Range.
While descending, he and another climber “accidentally wandered off the trail” and became stranded on the tip of Wintun Glacier at 13,500 feet, the authorities said. After realizing they were on the wrong route, they attempted to do a controlled slide, or glissade, to a lower section and re-enter it, the sheriff’s office said.
But Mr. Travizano lost control, fell about 2,000 feet down the glacier, and appeared to be knocked unconscious after colliding with a boulder, the sheriff’s office said.
The second climber descended down the mountain behind him, but as he came within 80 feet, Mr. Travizano appeared to regain consciousness and started to move, it said.
“Tragically, this movement dislodged him from the rock, and he slid down the remainder of the glacier and out of sight,” the statement said.
At about 2:27 p.m., deputies received a 911 call from the third climber, who had caught up with the second one, and reported that “a man had fallen down the Wintun Glacier and disappeared,” the statement said.
After several hours of searching, Mr. Travizano’s body was found near the base of the glacier, the sheriff’s office said.
Martin Varsavsky, an Argentine entrepreneur who knew Mr. Travizano for more than a decade, said that Mr. Travizano was an avid hiker. They expected to meet in Mendoza, Argentina, to do a hike in December. “He was well experienced,” he said.
Mount Shasta, a double-peaked volcano, attracts climbers, skiers and hikers, but they can face unpredictable weather patterns from shifting winds and storms along its slopes and glaciers. Mr. Travizano was on the Clear Creek route, considered one of the mountain’s safer routes, but it is where climbers can become disoriented in low visibility conditions and wander into more hazardous areas, the sheriff’s statement said.
Mr. Travizano, a physicist and entrepreneur, lived in California, where he was a visiting scholar at the HuMNet Lab, which studies human mobility and urban networks, at the University of California, Berkeley. His survivors include his wife, Kristen Durham, and infant son, Kai.
His LinkedIn showed he was a founder and managing partner of Sur Ventures, a venture capital investment company, and the founder and former chairman of GranData, a San Francisco-based company that develops artificial intelligence, data and privacy products. He sold the company in 2024 but stayed on as an adviser.
Despite living in the United States, Mr. Travizano remained connected to his roots, contributing to his alma mater, the University of Buenos Aires, and to the government of President Javier Milei. He helped organize Mr. Milei’s tour of Silicon Valley in 2024.
Chris Carr, who has been a guide and climber for 30 years on Mount Shasta, said in an interview that just below the summit, climbers could wrongly veer off the plateau and then onto the glacier, where the surface is hard-packed and dry after the summer.
“This time of the year, it is common to get cloud buildup on the upper mountain and get disoriented,” he said. “You can’t see your hand in front of your face.”
“There is nothing easy about climbing Mount Shasta in September,” Mr. Carr said. “It is easy to get off route, you are in very treacherous terrain.”
In July, another hiker was found dead near the 10,000 feet elevation off the Clear Creek route.
Christine Hauser is a Times reporter who writes breaking news stories, features and explainers.
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