Update on June 15: Nine days after he went missing in the remote Himalayas, Sam Vengrinovich was found alive by rescue teams on Sunday, June 15. He was taken to a hospital in India, according to his sister, Natasha Vengrinovich.
Below is the original story, published Wednesday, June 11.
Sam Vengrinovich, a former Bay Area resident who made aliyah, went on a two-day trek along Mount Triund in northern India last week but didn’t make it back to his campsite.
Now the family is raising funds to pay the teams who carried out the rescue and to cover Sam’s medical care and hospitalization — none of which is covered by insurance.
Vengrinovich arrived in India eight months ago, seeking clarity and a reprieve from the chaos of the Israel-Hamas war, according to his sister, Natasha Vengrinovich of San Francisco.
Earlier this month, he rented a tent, made a few friends at the campsite located in the Himalayas and notified his sister and parents that he was embarking on a two-day trek. He was last seen on Friday, June 6.
“His tent and a majority of his clothes and his phone are still at the campsite. He went hiking with a backpack, with, from our understanding, a day of food,” his sister told J. over Zoom from her home. Hikers who had only recently befriended Vengrinovich contacted her on Monday, June 9, worried after he hadn’t returned.
The Dharamsala region where Vengrinovich went hiking is very foggy, rainy, snowy and mountainous, his sister said. “It’s summertime, but it’s a glacier area.”
The family has hired local searchers as well as Harel searchers from Israel to help find Vengrinovich.
In addition to Harel, the Israeli nonprofit Haverim Mehalzim and international teams are working with local authorities and volunteers to expand the search, according to Natasha Vengrinovich.
Hiring the search teams is expensive, his sister said, and if Vengrinovich is found, transporting him out of India will also be costly. The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign seeking $100,000 to defer costs.
On Wednesday, June 11, family members updated the online campaign, explaining that they will initially pay $6,000 for local search teams and another $60,000 to cover four days of Harel search efforts and helicopter search and rescue operations. As of publishing time, they had reached nearly 40% of their goal.
The Vengrinoviches have had difficulty getting in touch with the U.S. Embassy in India, Natasha Vengrinovich said, noting that her parents’ calls keep getting dropped. A cousin in Israel reached out to Israeli media.
Vengrinovich’s parents, Vlad and Tina, Russian Jews who immigrated to the U.S. in 1980 to escape antisemitism, raised their two children, Sam and Natasha, in Fremont. Sam attended Mission San Jose High School and San Francisco State University. He was a regular participant at San Francisco Hillel events, according to his sister.
He made aliyah 15 years ago, she said. He lives in Jaffa. Their parents now live in Palm Coast, Florida.
Before beginning his hike Vengrinovich and his family were texting on a group chat on Thursday, June 5, about getting together for a reunion next month in Florida.
“That was the last communication that we had,” his sister said.