A Google executive and self-described adventurer was among 10 people killed at a Mount Everest base camp in an avalanche triggered by the earthquake in Nepal on Saturday, the company and his family said.
Dan Fredinburg was killed in the avalanche that buried parts of the base camp where hundreds of mountaineers were gathered for the start of the climbing season. He was with several colleagues who survived the tragedy, Lawrence You, director of privacy at Google, said in a blog post.
"Sadly, we lost one of our own in this tragedy. Dan Fredinburg, a long-time member of the Privacy organisation... was in Nepal with three other Googlers, hiking Mount Everest. He has passed away," You wrote. "The other three Googlers with him are safe and we are working to get them home quickly."
You said Google.org was contributing US$1 million to the response efforts.
Fredinburg's sister Megan said he died of a head trauma.
"We appreciate all of the love that has been sent our way thus far and know his soul and his spirit will live on in so many of us," she posted on his Instagram feed, along with a photo of him scaling a snowy slope.
"All our love and thanks to those who shared this life with our favourite hilarious strong-willed man. He was and is everything to us," she posted.
Fredinburg described himself as an "Adventurer, Inventor, and Energetic Engineer Google" on his Twitter page.
Photos on his Twitter and Instagram accounts in recent days show him preparing for his trek on the snowy slopes of Everest with colleagues.
"Ice training with micbattelli means frequent stops for morning cappuccino, regardless of danger. *Everest2015," his last post on Friday read.
His Twitter feed said he arrived in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, on March 31.
Fredinburg's LinkedIn profile said that he was the head of privacy at Google X and had previously been employed as an engineer for Boeing.
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