Matias Augusto Travizano, a prominent Argentine tech executive and passionate climber, met a tragic end earlier this month when he fell thousands of feet to his death while descending Mount Shasta in Northern California. Authorities reported that Travizano, 45, was part of a group that successfully summited the mountain on September 12th.
During their descent, Travizano and another climber inadvertently strayed from the established trail, finding themselves stranded on the perilous Wintun Glacier at an elevation of 13,500 feet. Realizing their error, they attempted a controlled slide, known as a glissade, to return to a safer section of the route.
However, tragedy struck when Travizano lost control, plummeting approximately 2,000 feet down the glacier. He appeared to be knocked unconscious after a severe impact with a boulder. The second climber, following closely behind, witnessed Travizano briefly regain consciousness and move when he was about 80 feet away.
Disturbingly, this movement dislodged him from the rock, causing him to slide further down the glacier and vanish from sight. A 911 call from the third climber, who had joined the second, reported the devastating fall around 2:27 p.m. After an intense multi-hour search, Mr. Travizano’s body was recovered near the base of the glacier.
Friends and colleagues remember Travizano as an experienced hiker. Martin Varsavsky, an Argentine entrepreneur, highlighted Travizano’s extensive experience, noting they had planned a hike together in Argentina for December.
Mount Shasta, a majestic double-peaked volcano, draws countless climbers, skiers, and hikers each year, yet it is notorious for its unpredictable weather, including sudden shifts in wind and severe storms across its slopes and glaciers. Travizano was using the Clear Creek route, generally considered one of the safer paths. However, even on this route, climbers can easily become disoriented in low visibility, leading them into dangerous terrain, as the sheriff’s statement emphasized.
A physicist and entrepreneur, Mr. Travizano resided in California, where he was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley’s HuMNet Lab, focusing on human mobility and urban networks. He is survived by his wife, Kristen Durham, and their infant son, Kai.
His impressive career included founding and serving as managing partner of Sur Ventures, a venture capital firm, and establishing GranData, a San Francisco-based company specializing in artificial intelligence, data, and privacy. He sold GranData in 2024 but continued to serve as an adviser. Though living in the U.S., Travizano maintained strong ties to Argentina, contributing to his alma mater, the University of Buenos Aires, and assisting the government of President Javier Milei, including organizing Mr. Milei’s 2024 Silicon Valley tour.
Chris Carr, a seasoned guide with 30 years of experience on Mount Shasta, explained that climbers can easily drift off the plateau just below the summit and onto the hard-packed, dry glacier surface during late summer. “This time of year, cloud buildup on the upper mountain often leads to disorientation. You can’t see your hand in front of your face,” Carr stated. He stressed, “There is nothing easy about climbing Mount Shasta in September. It is easy to get off route, you are in very treacherous terrain.” This incident follows another tragedy in July, when a different hiker was found dead near the 10,000-foot elevation, also off the Clear Creek route.