Dan Fredinburg

Dan Fredinburg
Born	Daniel Paul Fredinburg (1981-09-08)September 8, 1981 Mission Viejo, California[1]
Died	April 25, 2015(2015-04-25) (aged 33) South Base Camp, Mount Everest, Nepal
Cause of death	Head injuries resulting from an avalanche
Education	University of California, Irvine University of Southern California Stanford University University of California, Berkeley
Occupation	Manager and head of privacy at Google X

Daniel Paul Fredinburg^[1] (September 8, 1981 – April 25, 2015) was a Google executive, climate activist, inventor, explorer and entrepreneur, who died on April 25, 2015, of head injuries in an avalanche at Mount Everest's South Base Camp triggered by the 2015 Nepal earthquake.^[2]

Life

Fredinburg grew up on a farm in Norfork, Arkansas, and left home at age 15 to attend the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts in Hot Springs.^[3][4] He graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2004, and earned advanced degrees from the University of Southern California, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley.^[5][6] He began working for Google in 2007.^[5]

Fredinburg dated actress Sophia Bush from January 2013 to February 2014.^[6][7][8]

Work

Fredinburg was a product manager and head of privacy at Google X,^[9] an advisor on Project Loon,^[10] and the co-founder of Save the Ice. He had also worked on YouTube and Google Maps.^[11] He launched Google Adventure Team, an effort to map geological areas and formations on Earth at a similar level of detail to Google Earth's street-level view of cities, towns, and other populated areas (including the Great Barrier Reef, the floors of the oceans, and high and/or remote mountains and mountain ranges, including the Himalayas).^{[12][13][14][15]}

Fredinburg invented and patented over ten software technologies.^[16]

Expeditions

Although non-disclosure agreements prevented Google from commenting on the "two or three different Google projects” related to Fredinburg's expedition work,^[4] at a minimum, he was one of four company employees documenting Mount Everest ascent routes for a Google Earth-type project.^[17] In a 2013 interview for Time magazine, Fredinburg explained the company's goal:^[18][19]

Different adventurers and people who want to explore from the comfort of their homes have the opportunity to explore and see these different corners of the world.

—Dan Fredinburg

On April 24, 2015, Fredinburg unrolled a banner on top of Kala Patthar, for the climate change cause SaveTheIce.org.^[20][21]

Fredinburg, who had been on the mountain for three weeks^[6] and who had spoken of his narrow escape from the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche which killed 16 Nepalese guides,^[4][22] was one of four American citizens killed in the 2015 Mount Everest-South Base Camp disaster, following the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Five Sherpas carried Fredinburg's body down the mountain, to a U.S. Army Special Forces helicopter evacuating climbers several days after the avalanche.^[23][24]

Although he had not yet reached the summit of Everest, the highest peak in Asia, Fredinburg had topped four of the so-called "Seven Summits" using the same pair of hiking boots (including Mount Elbrus in Europe, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Aconcagua in South America, all three of which he had photographed for Google).^[19][25] Fredinburg also climbed the difficult and relatively inaccessible Puncak Jaya ("Carstensz Pyramid"), highest peak in Oceania, and was briefly jailed after descending into nearby Grasberg mine.^[25] He also summited Mount Shasta, Mount Whitney, and Mount Fuji in 2011.^[26] Fredinburg had also visited Mount Everest's South Base Camp in 2011.^[26]

Social causes

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Frendinburg organized a relief effort in New York City, Staten Island, with the aim to support victims of the storm, who became homeless.^[27]

A 2014 SaveTheIce.org project in the Baltic states was featured in the Discovery Digital Networks production In the Making.^[28]

Fredinburg was the founder of The Laundry, a San Francisco-based business incubator helping accelerate startups with a social impact.^[5][29]

Legacy

In the wake of his death, former girlfriend Sophia Bush urged donations to OrphanGift, through a Crowdrise page set up by Max Goldstein of Google in Fredinburg's memory.^[30][31]

LiveDan, a campaign website, was launched by Fredinburg's friends and partners to promote the principles which guided Fredinburg's life.^[32]

References

External links

• Save The Ice
• Live Dan
• Dan Fredinburg's Google+ page