A climate journalist from Wisconsin became a missing hiker in Norway, but this story has a happy ending. Alec Luhn went for a solo hike in Folgefonna National Park and ended up injured and lost. Luhn survived by himself for nearly week, when, at long last, a helicopter spotted him—a small red dot on a cliff.
Luhn’s wife, Veronika Silchenko, played a crucial role in helping search crews find him. According to a report by WISN 12 News, Silchenko was able to access her husband’s laptop, which had journal entries from the start of the solo trip on it. This information, combined with the location of the last photo he sent from his phone and improving weather conditions, all worked in tandem to help search-and-rescue crews locate Luhn.
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“Alec is safe and is being treated by what feels like the most incredible medical team,” Silchenko wrote in an Instagram update from yesterday. “He has undergone a successful surgery for a broken femur and fractured pelvis that left him essentially unable to move for more than 6 days on a mountain near Buarbreen glacier. We are still in the hospital and the treatment is continuing but things looking better every day!”
See Luhn’s wife’s latest update, posted yesterday, here:
Here’s a news report including an interview with Luhn’s parents as they were on their way to meet up with their son, the formerly missing hiker, in Norway:
Hopefully, Luhn will tell his full story soon.
Header stock image of Folgefonna National Park in Norway by Morten Falch Sortland/Getty Images