Lucky: Selena Dicker, 38, outran the avalanche on Mount Everest in the wake of the Nepal quake

A British climber has cheated death on Everest for the second time in a year, it emerged last night.

As rescuers faced a desperate race against time to airlift stranded climbers off the world's highest peak after the devastating earthquake on Saturday night, Selina Dicker described how she ran for her life as a wall of snow and ice tore through Base Camp.

Miss Dicker, 38, from London, was at the same camp on April 18 last year when an avalanche killed 16 Sherpas who were climbing ahead of her group. The tragedy forced Miss Dicker, head of lending for finance company Europa Capital Mezzanine, to abandon her first attempt on the summit.

Miss Dicker – who was in the same climbing party as Google executive Dan Fredinburg, who died in Saturday's avalanche – described the ordeal in a satellite phone call to her mother Gail Dicker at her home in Ranworth, Norfolk.

Mrs Dicker, 61, said: 'She's a very lucky girl. I just want to see her home. Others in her group tried to out-run it and one of them was killed and two were seriously hurt.'

Miss Dicker, who was born with a cleft palate, had been trying to raise £45,000 for Operation Smile, which provides surgery for children with the condition.

Her mother said: 'She wanted to go back and have another go. I tried to talk her out of it as any mother would, but she is a determined and independent woman of 38 and you cannot tell them what to do.

'I am hoping her father will talk her out of it if she wants to go back again. She listens to him more than me.'

Six helicopters have been flying perilous rescue missions since the earthquake triggered a 'tsunami' of ice and rock which crushed Base Camp, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more.

Bad weather, continued aftershocks, and poor communication have scuppered subsequent trips, leaving hundreds stranded.

Climber Alex Staniforth, 19, from Chester, said on Twitter that he was 'very lucky to be alive' after being evacuated to Base Camp.

But while some climbers were able to tweet and update their Facebook pages, others were cut off from communications, leaving worried families in Britain desperate for news. Up to 70 Britons are unaccounted for.

Traveller Samuel Beckett, 23, from Leicester, is missing and his father Martin said: 'We have not heard anything. We just keep watching the news and keep looking through the social media sites.'

Among the other stories emerging from the disaster zone were:

Miss Dicker, from Fulham, southwest London, escaped the wall of snow and rocks as it tore through the Everest base camp on Saturday morning, by running for her life and seeking shelter from a ridge

Tragedy: Miss Dicker, front left, was part of the same climbing party as Google Executive Dan Fredinburg, far top right, who died in the avalanche on Saturday

CUT OFF AND PRAYING FOR A HELICOPTER

Awaiting rescue yesterday, newlyweds Sam and Alex Chappatte were in good spirits as they tweeted from the mountain: 'All Alex keeps talking about is her need for a glass of wine. Some of us are more chilled out than others.'

As the adventurous couple, both 28, spent a third night halfway up Everest, Alex's sister Liz Schneider, 23, said: 'The ordeal isn't over. They have not been able to get off yet.

'We are just keeping our fingers crossed and hoping they can get to safety soon.'

Awaiting rescue yesterday, newlyweds Sam and Alex Chappatte were in good spirits as they tweeted from the mountain

Video has emerged of the moment the earthquake hit Mount Everest and triggered a massive avalanche

The Chappattes, who married two weeks ago in Chelsea, London, tweeted earlier yesterday: 'Trying to get a chopper.' They then wrote 'fog creeping up the valley'.

The newlyweds have described how they saw an 'avalanche coming straight at us' and were blown over by a blast of wind.

They scrambled to shelter behind other tents and had to keep making air holes in the snow to breathe as the avalanche engulfed them.

DESPERATE SOS FROM MISSING TREKKER

The family of a missing British woman has received an SOS message saying her group is trapped without food and water and in desperate need of medical assistance.

Yoga student Susannah Ross, 20, has not been in contact since she left for a trek in the remote valleys in the Langtang National Park on Friday. One of her fellow walkers – from South Africa – managed to send a message to his mother saying the group needed help.

Yoga student Susannah Ross, 20, has not been in contact since she left for a trek in the remote valleys in the Langtang National Park on Frida

Susannah's sister Nina, 25, from Bath, Somerset, said: 'Someone has managed to text or something saying they are stuck in an area with 15 other trekkers. They have sent the co-ordinates but said in the message that some are injured and that they don't have any food or water and that they really need to be rescued. They have said they need a helicopter to get out.

'All the roads around them are ruined and they can't get out. We are frantically trying to work out a way of reaching her and getting her help.'

THE PHONE CALLS...AND THE GRIM SILENCE

Gap-year volunteer Anna Buchanan, 18, from New Malden, was missing for more than 24 hours until she contacted her distraught mother Pauline, who said: 'As I spoke to her there was another tremor. Everyone started screaming, it was just awful.'

Saad Hikmet, from Mill Hill, whose son Jonathan, 25, has not been heard of since the disaster, said: 'He was on a trek of Northern Nepal with yoga instructors and they've been going around for a month. Now we just want to know that he's safe.'

Philip Green, 30, originally from St John's Wood, London, was still missing yesterday. His brother Rob said: 'Obviously we are extremely worried at the moment. It's a nightmare for us.'

Barbara and Ian Nightingale, who are from Nottingham and in their 60s, were believed to be trekking in Nepal at the time of the quake.

A couple from Carshalton in south London – Chloe Pincho and Brennan White – were trekking up Everest at the time of the disaster, but last night made contact.

Pensioner Ann McNeil, from New Milton, Hampshire, was on an adventure holiday with her two brothers. Daughter Karen Korvin, 40, had set up an urgent appeal for information and announced last night that they had been found. She wrote online: 'I love you, Mum, please come home safely.'

Leicester University has paid tribute to post-graduate medical student Marisa Eve Girawong, from New Jersey in the United States, who was killed in the tragedy. Holby City actress Catherine Russell tweeted a picture of a relative, Mike Russell, who was missing. The 42-year-old has since been found.

Climbers could be seen sprinting away from the wall of snow and taking refuge in their tents at base camp

ALTITUDE SICKNESS SAVES AMANDA HOLDEN'S SISTER

Amanda Holden said her sister was trapped on the mountain and may have been saved because she had altitude sickness.

The Britain's Got Talent judge said Debbie Holden had sent a text message to let her family know she had survived the avalanche.

Miss Holden said of her sister, a scuba-diving instructor: 'It's awful, I can barely speak. I'm still quite numb. It's hard to take in what an awful situation it is in Nepal.'

She said Debbie had not yet reached Base Camp, where the avalanche struck, because she had been ill and had stopped to recover.