A search is underway for an American journalist who went missing on a Norwegian glacier at Folgefonna National Park while on a solo backpacking trip, according to his family.
Alec Luhn, 38, was reported missing on Monday to the Norwegian authorities when he did not show up for his flight home to England after leaving for a hike on July 31 in Odda, in southwestern Norway, according to his wife, Veronika Silchenko, who posted on social media urging anyone who may have seen him to get in touch.
Luhn, an award-winning American climate journalist, was on vacation with his family before he left for the hike and shared his location, according to CBS News.
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His family was not worried since he is an experienced outdoorsman, according to the outlet. His family expected he might not have cell service, but when he did not show up for his flight back home on Monday night, they called the police.
Silchenko, an Emmy-winning TV journalist, said her husband sent a picture from his last known location in Odda on Thursday, saying “that was the last time I heard from him.”
“Alec is basically obsessed with the Arctic,” Silchenko told CBS News. “He loves glaciers and snow, and he loves explorers, and he’s a climate journalist, so for him it is always that story that now because of the climate change they’re all shrinking, and he’s trying his best to go to the coldest countries.”
Luhn lives with his wife in London, but he is from Wisconsin.
He has reported for various outlets, including The Guardian, The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Scientific American, TIME, CBS News Radio and VICE News TV.
Bad weather had forced a search operation with a helicopter to be suspended on Monday night, police said.
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“The weather started to get really bad around midnight. At that time, it was not reasonable to continue the search up in the mountains,” Tatjana Knappen of the Western Police District told Norway’s public broadcaster NRK.
A volunteer search and rescue team, police, sniffer dogs and drones renewed the search on Tuesday before it was again suspended due to weather conditions.
The Norwegian Red Cross said search operations had been ongoing throughout Tuesday. It said the search teams were local and familiar with the terrain, but called it particularly challenging due to difficult conditions and demanding weather.
