Tech Entrepreneur Fell 2,000 Feet to His Death on a California Mountain, After He Reached the Peak and Was Descending

A tech entrepreneur and scholar successfully climbed a large California mountain but tragically fell to his death on the way back down.

On the morning of Sept. 12, three climbers reached the peak of Mount Shasta in Siskiyou County, California, and began descending the Clear Creek climbing route, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO). During the descent, two of the climbers accidentally left the trail and ended up stranded on what authorities described as “an ice sheet at the northern tip” of Wintun Glacier.

Mount Shasta, a stratovolcano, rises more than 14,000 feet. The two men were stranded at about 13,500 feet. They tried sliding down the icy terrain to reach a safer area, but one man “began sliding out of control,” the sheriff’s office said.

The man, identified as Matias Augusto Travizano, hit a boulder roughly 300 feet below the other climber and appeared to be knocked unconscious. He remained unconscious for five to ten minutes while the other climber tried to reach him but could not.

Travizano eventually regained consciousness and started moving. Tragically, this caused him to slip from the rock and slide down the rest of the glacier, disappearing from sight.

Minutes later, the third climber arrived and reported the incident. Siskiyou County Sheriff’s deputies reached the area around 2:27 p.m. local time. Travizano had fallen about 2,000 feet and, after several hours of land and air search efforts, was found at 10,200 feet near the base of Wintun Glacier.

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

He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires in 2004 and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, at the time of his death.

The SCSO offered its “heartfelt condolences” to Travizano’s “family and loved ones.”

The sheriff’s office also warned future climbers about the Clear Creek Trail, calling it potentially dangerous.

The caution comes after another climber, a 50-year-old man, fell to his death on the same trail in August, according to the Los Angeles Times. While Clear Creek is considered one of Mount Shasta’s safer routes, the sheriff’s office noted that climbers can become disoriented in low visibility. Once off the trail, they may end up in more dangerous areas where accidents are more likely.