The earthquake in Nepal last Saturday, 25th April, has claimed over 4,000 lives according to New York Times, which also triggered a massive avalanche in the Himalaya regions, including Mount Everest.
Dan Fredinburg, a respected Google executive who headed privacy for Google X and lead its product management team, reportedly died in the avalanche on Mount Everest, Time reports.
By all accounts, Fredinburg was an experienced climber who had also co-founded Google Adventure, a company team that filmed Google Street View images in “extreme, exotic locations like the summit of Mount Everest. Google street view images and Google Earth are among the most popular Google applications used on the internet. Times also confirmed that Fredinburg is the only casualty among the Google team on expedition to the Mount Everest. The other two team members are safe and the internet giant is making all efforts to get their staff out as soon as possible.
Fredinburg’s sister Megan confirmed his death via his Instagram account, while Google’s privacy director Lawrence posted the following earlier today:
“Dan Fredinburg, a long-time member of the Privacy organization in Mountain View, was in Nepal with three other Googlers, hiking Mount Everest. He has passed away. The other three Googlers with him are safe and we are working to get them home quickly.”
Meanwhile, ABC News has confirmed that two other Americans were killed in other work related death as a direct result of the avalanche in Mount Everest triggered by the earthquake. The other death was Marisa Eve Girawong, a physician attached to Seattle-based Madison Mountaineering who was working at the base of Mount Everest at the time of the avalanche. The other American killed was Tom Taplin, a documentary film maker from Santa Monica, California. He was at the Everest area to film a documentary when the avalanche occurred and had been there for four weeks.
May their souls rest in perfect peace.
