Tech Entrepreneur Fell 2,000 Feet to His Death on a California Mountain

A tech entrepreneur and scholar successfully climbed a massive California mountain. On the way back down, he plummeted to his death.

In the morning of Sept. 12, a trio of climbers reached the peak of Mount Shasta in Siskiyou County, Calif., and began their descent on the mountain’s Clear Creek climbing route, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO). On the way down, two of the three individuals accidentally wandered off the trail, and they found themselves stranded on what authorities described as “an ice sheet at the northern tip” of Wintun Glacier.

The stratovolcano peaks at an elevation of more than 14,000 feet, and the climbers, two men, were stranded at around 13,500 feet. The pair tried to slide down the icy terrain to a lower area, where they could get back on the correct trail, but one of them “began sliding out of control,” the sheriff’s office said.

The man, identified as Matias Augusto Travizano, collided with a boulder about 300 feet below the other climber and was seemingly knocked unconscious in the process, the sheriff’s office said. He remained unconscious for the next five to 10 minutes, as the other climber tried to reach him, to no avail.

The other climber only got within 80 feet of Travizano, 45, before he awoke and was once again able to move. But what happened next sealed his fate.

“Mr. Travizano regained consciousness and started moving,” the sheriff’s office said in the press release. “Tragically, this movement dislodged him from the rock and he slid down the remainder of the glacier and out of sight.”

Just minutes later, the third climber arrived at the scene and reported the incident. Siskiyou County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the area of Travizano’s disappearance, arriving at the scene at around 2:27 p.m. local time.

But the climber had fallen approximately 2,000 feet down and, following a couple hours of search and rescue efforts on land and in air, was discovered at an elevation of 10,200 feet, authorities said. He was found near the base of the Wintun Glacier.

Travizano was the co-founder and former CEO of technology company Grandata, and was involved with several other companies in the world of tech and AI, according to his LinkedIn and X accounts.

He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires in 2004. At the time of his death, he was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, per his social media.

In a press release, the SCSO offered its “heartfelt condolences” to Travizano’s “family and loved ones.”

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The sheriff’s office also issued a statement about Clear Creek Trail, the Mount Shasta trail where Travizano fell to his death, warning future climbers that it can be treacherous.

The caution comes after another climber, a 50-year-old man, fell to his death after becoming disoriented while climbing down the same trail in August, according to the Los Angeles Times. (There is an average of one death per year on the mountain, but it remains a popular destination for climbers, according to the newspaper.)

“While the Clear Creek Route is considered one of the mountain’s ‘safer’ trails to the summit, climbers can become disoriented in low-visibility conditions, particularly when descending from the summit plateau,” the sheriff’s office said. “Once off trail, these climbers often wander into more hazardous areas in the Ash Creek or Mud Creek drainages, where accidents are more likely to occur.”