Missing American Journalist in Norway Rescued Yesterday

Rescuers in Norway has been searching for missing US climate journalist Alec Luhn. He was found alive yesterday. Read on to learn more about the missing American journalist in Norway who was rescued yesterday.

Award-winning climate journalist Alec Luhn didn’t return as planned from a four-day solo hike in bad weather at the Norwegian national park Folgefonna, home to one of the country’s most enormous glaciers.

Luhn, who has worked for multiple news outlets, including the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the BBC, departed for his hike from the town of Odda on 31 July, according to his wife Veronika Silchenko.

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Luhn, a 38-year-old Wisconsin native, was scheduled to stay at two mountain cabins, DNT Holmaskjer and DNT Breidablikk, during his hike. His trip was set to end Monday morning, 4 August, at Årsnes Kai bus station, where he would begin a roughly four-hour journey from the national park to the city of Bergen to catch an evening flight.

Rescue crews are using dogs and drones to search, the New York Times reported, citing Ingeborg Thorsland, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Red Cross.

Silchenko added that she knew Luhn wouldn’t have strong cellphone service on the trek, so she didn’t expect him to be in constant contact. He usually sets his phone on airplane mode to save battery at the start of hikes, she added, so she couldn’t tell if or when he may have lost service. Luhn was last active and connected to the internet on Thursday.

Norwegian media said Luhn, 38, was holidaying with his sister in Norway and had set out on the four-day hike alone on 31 July from the outdoor center of Ullensvang on the northern edge of the park, a 550 sq km wilderness in the west of the country.

“Weather conditions started to get bad around midnight,” when a rescue helicopter was recalled amid strong winds and heavy rain, said Tatjana Knappen, an operations manager from Vestland police. “It was not reasonable to continue the search in the mountains.” However, his wife said that he is an experienced outdoorsman who has previously camped in poor weather conditions. Still, she began to panic after the hiker missed his Monday flight out of Bergen to London. That’s when Silchenko alerted authorities and reported him missing.

Police said late on Tuesday afternoon that volunteer rescuers had been pulled out because of fast-deteriorating weather conditions, but the search would continue into the evening. “We have to put rescue teams’ safety first,” the police chief Svein Buer told VG newspaper.

Missing American Journalist in Norway Rescued Yesterday, Tor Kjolberg reporting.
Feature image (top) Ullensvang. Photo: Wikipedia.