Audi Executive Fabrizio Longo Dies At 62 While Climbing 10,000-Foot Mountain Peak

Fabrizio Longo, an Audi executive with a love for mountain climbing, died on Aug. 31 during a climb at Cima Payer in Italy.

Longo, 62, fell while walking along a protected climbing route toward the mountain’s peak, the Italian Winter Sports Federation announced on its website. In a statement, Federation President Flavio Roda said Longo’s passing is “a terrible loss for the federation, which has collaborated profitably with Longo for years.”

“We join his family in this moment of great pain and the staff of Audi Italia,” he continued. The federation said Longo “had a great passion for the mountains, and, under his leadership, Audi Italia linked its image to that of the Italian Winter Sports Federation.”

The statement described Longo as “a very expert careful mountaineer,” and said he had been on a solo climb of Cima Payer, which has a peak of 10,000 feet. Another climber “witnessed the incident” and called for help, but rescuers pronounced Longo dead after finding his body 650 feet below the summit.

Before joining Audi in 2012, Longo worked at Fiat and Lancia and was always vocal about his love for mountain climbing.