Rescuers in Norway have found the award-winning environmental journalist Alec Luhn alive after he went missing in the remote Folgefonna national park and survived nearly a week alone in the wilderness with a serious leg injury..
Luhn, a US-born reporter who has worked for the New York Times and the Atlantic and was a regular Russia correspondent for the Guardian from 2013 to 2017, was reported missing on Monday after he failed to catch a flight to the UK from Bergen.
Luhn, 38, had been holidaying with his sister in Norway and set out on a four-day hike alone on 31 July from the outdoor centre of Ullensvang, on the northern edge of the park, a 550 sq km wilderness in the west of Norway that is home to one of the country’s biggest glaciers.
At a press briefing from Haukeland hospital in Bergen, the head of the air ambulance service and trauma centre, Geir Arne Sunde, said Luhn had hurt himself on the evening he set out. “He is seriously injured, but not critically injured,” he said, adding that Luhn was awake, relieved and grateful for his rescue.
“He has managed in the mountain in very bad weather for five days, without much food or drink,” Sunde said. “He has been very lucky.”
A volunteer search and rescue team from the Red Cross, police, dogs and drones were all involved in the search. The operation had to be suspended late on Monday night and then again on Tuesday due to rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.
Sunde said Luhn had heard the helicopters searching for him for several days before one of them eventually spotted him.
Luhn’s sister Drew Gaddis confirmed in a social media post that he had been found “in overall good health” and was being transported to Bergen by helicopter.
She thanked the Norwegian police, the teams of staff and volunteers involved and the thousands of people who had helped share news of the search. “We can breathe again!” she said.
“We are very, very happy!” Veronika Silchenko, Luhn’s wife, told the Verden Gans newspaper. “Many thanks to everyone in Norway who has helped find him.”
Luhn is an experienced mountain walker, fit and was well equipped for the journey. Among numerous awards, Luhn has two Emmy nominations. He was based for many years in Moscow, then Istanbul, and now lives in the UK where he specialises in climate journalism and is a Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network fellow.
Folgefonna, the third largest icecap in Norway, is on a peninsula famed for its fjords, mountains, rivers, lakes and icefalls. It has been a centre for wilderness adventure since the 19th century. Parts are desolate and can be treacherous, especially in poor weather.
