New Jersey doc, Google exec among Nepal earthquake victims on Everest

Hours before avalanche, Marisa Eve Girawong wrote on Facebook that she was craving sushi.

A Google executive-turned-mountain climber and New Jersey doctor working at a Mount Everest base camp were among three Americans killed in Saturdays devastating earthquake in Nepal.

Marisa Eve Girawong, a 28-year-old doctor from Edison, N.J., died in an avalanche that struck the base camp area after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people, including more than a dozen on the worlds highest mountain.

Seattle-based Madison Mountaineering confirmed Girawongs death on its website.

It is with deep sorrow and profound grief that we can confirm the loss of our Everest/Lhotse base camp doctor, Madison co-founder Kurt Hunter wrote in a blog post entitled Our hearts are broken.

Girawong died at the expeditions 17,500-foot elevation base camp. All 15 members of the expeditions climbing team made it safely to Camp 2, where they were awaiting helicopter evacuation.

According her bio on the mountaineering company’s site, Girawong, who was born in Thailand, had been a physician’s assistant working in a Level 1 emergency room with a focus on trauma and wilderness medicine when she joined the Everest expedition earlier this year.

She completed her medical training at John Stroger Hospital of Chicago and was in the process of completing a second master’s degree in mountain medicine at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, her bio said.

Girawong, an avid rock climber and mountaineer, had been working in the Everest region for more about a year.

Officially the highest Ive been so far at 5,550 meters/18,300 ft., she wrote on Facebook on April 12. Never made it last year but finally got to the top of Kala Patthar.

Hours before the avalanche struck, Girawong wrote on Facebook that it was snowing and she was craving sushi.

Day 28 on this arduous journey, snow is falling & my food cravings are at an all time high, Girawong wrote. Is a crunchy spicy tuna roll with eel sauce too much to ask for?

Dan Fredinburg, a 33-year-old Google executive who was climbing Everest to raise awareness about climate change through his Save the Ice campaign, also died in the avalanche.

I regret to inform all who loved him that during the avalanche on Everest early this morning our Dan suffered from a major head injury and didnt make it, Fredinburg's sister, Megan, wrote in a message posted to his Instagram account. 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. All our love and thanks to those who shared this life with our favorite hilarious strong willed man. He was and is everything to us. Thank you.

Actress Sophia Bush, who once dated Fredinburg, posted a long Instagram message mourning his loss:

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. His brain knew how to build it. His heart was constantly evolving to push himself to make it so. He was one of my favorite human beings on Earth. He was one of the great loves of my life. He was one of my truest friends. He was an incredible brother, a brilliant engineer, and a damn good man. I'm devastated and simultaneously so deeply grateful to have known and loved him, and to have counted him as one of my tribe. I was so looking forward to our planned download of all the things when he got home. I am crushed that I will never hear that story. I am crushed knowing that there are over 1,000 people in Nepal suffering this exact feeling, knowing that they too will never hear another tale about an adventure lived from someone that they love. Disasters like this are often unquantifiable, the enormity is too much to understand. Please remember that each person who is now gone was someone's Dan. Please remember that our time on this Earth is not guaranteed. Please tell those you love that you do. Right now. This very minute. And please send a kiss to the sky for my friend Dan. His energy is so big and so bright, and it's all around us, so put some love toward him today. And then hug your loved ones again. #goodbyesweetfriend #savetheice #Nepal

 

According to his LinkedIn page, Fredinburg — a self-described “Google Adventurer” — worked on Google’s privacy team, helping bring Google's Street View project to some of the world's most famous mountains, including Kilimanjaro and Everest.

"Sadly, we lost one of our own in this tragedy," Google's Lawrence You wrote in a message to colleagues. "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."

Google is committing $1 million to earthquake response efforts, he added.

Fredinburg, who survived an avalanche on Everest last year, was remembered by Save the Ice co­founder Mike North.

Dan was a mountaineer/explorer because he loved to climb/see the world, but that was never the whole point, North said in a statement. “His purpose in the world was much bigger. Much of it revolved around calling attention to how we as individuals can make a difference.

A Crowdrise campaign launched in Fredinburgs memory has raised more than $10,000 in support of two Nepali orphanages he was also climbing for.

Day 22, Fredinburg wrote on Instagram on April 24. Ice training ... means frequent stops for morning cappuccino, regardless of danger.

A third American, Tom Taplin, a 61-year-old documentary filmmaker from Evergreen, Colo., was also killed in the avalanche.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Taplin was working on a documentary about the Mount Everest base camp when disaster struck.

Taplin's wife, Cory Freyer, told NBC News she was still in shock by the news.

"All of his friends — and he has so many friends — every one of them is just devastated," she said.

On Sunday, the U.S. State Department confirmed three U.S. citizens were killed in earthquake, but did not release their names.

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