A longtime member of Google’s privacy team died while climbing Mt. Everest after a powerful earthquake in Nepal triggered an avalanche, his colleagues and family confirmed.
He also led multiple trips to gather imagery of a region around Mt. Everest, for use on the “street view” function of Google Maps.
Bay Area resident Dan Fredinburg, a Google X project manager, died early Saturday morning after suffering “a major head injury,” Fredinburg’s sister posted on his Instagram account.
“All our love and thanks to those who shared this life with our favorite hilarious strong willed man,” his sister Megan wrote. “He was and is everything to us. Thank you.”
Fredinburg was with three other Google employees at Everest; they are safe, according to a public post from Google’s director of privacy, Lawrence You. “We are working to get them home quickly,” he wrote.
In an online statement, mountaineering company Jagged Globe also confirmed the death of Fredinburg, whom the company called “one of our Everest team members.” Two other members of the team were being treated for injuries suffered in the avalanche, the statement said. It was unclear whether the team members were among the three Google employees.
