A 33-year-old Google executive is among the 18 climbers killed in the avalanche on Mount Everest after a shattering 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal.
Dan Fredinburg, who used to date One Tree Hill actress Sophia Bush, suffered fatal head injuries while climbing with the Jagged Globe team on Saturday.
Bush, who ended their one-year relationship last February, delivered the news in an emotional post on Instagram, which paid tribute to ‘one of the great loves of my life’ who was ‘one of a kind’.
Fredinburg, whose job title was ‘Google Adventurer’, used to photograph the world’s high peaks for Google Maps. He was also head of privacy for the firm’s elusive invention factory Google X.
In a long statement, Bush said: ‘There are no adequate words. Today I find myself attempting to pick up the pieces of my heart that have broken into such tiny shards, I’ll likely never find them all.
‘Today I, and so many of my loved ones, lost an incredible friend. Dan Fredinburg was one-of-a-kind. Fearless. Funny. A dancing robot who liked to ride dinosaurs and chase the sun and envision a better future for the world.’
The couple separated in February 2014 due to long distance despite friends’ suspicions they might one day marry. But they stayed close.
Last April, before they had announced their split, Fredinburg narrowly survived another Mount Everest avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas – and Bush took to Twitter to assure her followers he was all right.
Bush tweeted: ‘For all concerned, @danfredinburg & team are safe at Camp 1 on #Everest after the avalanche. Please keep the Sherpas in your prayers.’
Fredinburg’s death was first confirmed by his younger sister Megan, who posted a picture of her brother climbing a mountain to his Instagram account with an explanatory caption.