Petaluma hiker missing on Mount Everest found safe

Spencer Dickinson, 21, a Petaluma High grad, was missing since Nepal’s deadly earthquake on Saturday.|

A Mount Everest-bound Petaluma native missing since a massive earthquake in Nepal on Saturday told family on Tuesday that he is safe while awaiting a flight to Kathmandu, according to his family.

“I’m feeling absolutely a sense of relief I can’t even explain - it’s beyond words,” said his father, Bob Dickinson, who first spoke with his son, Spencer, during a 30-second phone call Tuesday night.

Had he not been ahead of schedule on a round-trip hike to Everest base camp, 21-year-old Spencer Dickinson told family he would likely have been nearby as an avalanche tore through the camp, killing 18 people, according to an account from his cousin, Haley Caldwell. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed thousands of people across Nepal, flattening villages and causing major destruction in Kathmandu.

Spencer Dickinson had been hiking with a local guide across snow-covered terrain when the earthquake struck, Caldwell said.

“He said he was knocked to the ground, and it was really scary,” said Caldwell.

He soon descended to a tiny mountain village, Machermo, where Spencer Dickinson told family he spent three days waiting in line to use a single satellite phone, she said.

“There were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to use one satellite phone, and he was at the back of the line,” Caldwell said.

It was just before 8 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday that Spencer Dickinson, preparing to board a helicopter out of the area, called his father. He offered little information outside of an account of the effort to transport the remains of victims, but the fact that he was alive was enough, his father said.

“He sounded strong. He’s alive,” Bob Dickinson said.

Spencer Dickinson later told his family he was awaiting a flight to the capital that was delayed due to poor weather. He reported suffering from altitude sickness but was otherwise in good health, Caldwell said.

The family had not heard from Spencer Dickinson since a Skype call to his mother from the Himalayan village of Namche Bazaar on April 19, when he first shared his plans to continue the trek to Everest base camp, according to the family. A cinematographer in the area told the family that a guide may have sighted Spencer, but his survival was not confirmed until the Tuesday night call.

“You can be sad and worried, or you can let go and have faith that something good will happen,” said Caldwell of Las Vegas, who helped spread the word of their search on social media. “The outpouring of support from total strangers has been really amazing.”

A 2011 graduate of Petaluma High School, Spencer Dickinson attended junior college in Santa Barbara for two years before moving to Hollywood, his father said.

The Petaluma native’s travels to Nepal were the latest step in a six-month “spiritual journey,” his father said. Driven in part by an emerging interest in Buddhism, Spencer Dickinson sold his car to help finance several months in Sri Lanka and Thailand before setting his sights on the Himalayas, he said.

“I don’t think that was part of the original plan, to go to Everest,” Bob Dickinson said. “I’ve got to admire him. He’s always chased his dreams.”

Centered northeast of Kathmandu, the earthquake and its aftershocks leveled unreinforced stone buildings throughout the region and left thousands of people sleeping outside for fear of further collapse. More than 5,000 were reported dead as of Wednesday morning.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscouri er.com)

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