Last week, a tech CEO from Argentina tragically died after falling 3,000 feet while descending Mount Shasta in northern California, as per officials and media reports.
The individual, Matias Augusto Travizano, 45, reached the top of the 14,162-foot mountain on September 12 and was on his way down the commonly used Clear Creek Trail, a route known for its ease, accompanied by two strangers, as noted by The San Francisco Chronicle referring to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office.
Travizano, co-founder and former CEO of GranData, deviated from the main path, which led him and one of the strangers to become stranded on the steep and icy Wintun Glacier, situated at about 13,500 feet in altitude, according to the report.
The stranded climbers attempted a controlled slide down the challenging icy terrain to find a safer area, but Travizano lost control during this effort, hitting a boulder approximately 300 feet below, as witnesses reported to the sheriff.
Although the impact appeared to render Travizano unconscious for up to ten minutes, he was still alive during this period, based on the report. The second climber tried to reach him during that time, as reported by SF Gate.
When he regained consciousness and moved — he slipped again and plunged over an edge and out of sight, the sheriff’s office said.
His body was found near the glacier’s base at 10,200 feet by the California Highway Patrol helicopter unit, the Chronicle reported.
According to the sheriff’s office, as mentioned in the Chronicle, “Even though the Clear Creek Route is regarded as one of the mountain’s ‘safer’ trails for summiting, climbers can become disoriented, especially under low-visibility conditions, when descending from the summit plateau.”
“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.”
Travizano was a trained physicist and an entrepreneur whose company GranData is a San Francisco based data analytics company, according to reports.
He was named a government adviser in Argentina in 2024 by President Javier Milei, and helped orchestrate the politician’s first tour of Silicon Valley, the Chronicle reported.
Travizano is seen in one group photo alongside both Milei and Apple CEO Tim Cook during that 2024 trip.
He was remembered as “extremely warm, a great family man, and funny as hell,” by one mentee who wrote a heartfelt obituary.
