An American journalist who vanished during a solo hike in Norway has been found alive, authorities confirmed.
Alec Luhn was on a four-day solo backpacking trip through southern Norway’s Folgefonna National Park when he went missing, PEOPLE previously reported.
According to CBS News, his wife, Veronika Silchenko, said she last heard from him on July 31 while he was hiking in the town of Odda.
On Wednesday, August 6, the Norwegian Red Cross announced in a post on X that Luhn had been “found alive near Folgefonna” by a helicopter rescue crew and was being “transported for medical treatment.”
He was discovered at 11:34 a.m. local time, conscious but exhausted, CNN reported.
“Alec is alive!” his mother, Sarah Marie Luhn, told WISN-TV. “Something is wrong with his leg, but otherwise, he’s in good health. Thank God!”
Speaking to Norwegian outlet VG, Silchenko said, “We are very, very happy! Many thanks to everyone in Norway who has helped to find him.”
Stig Hope, a Red Cross volunteer and head of the search leadership team, noted the rarity of such rescues. “The search doesn’t always end like this — but today, it did,” she said. “It’s a huge relief for everyone who’s been part of the effort.”
Luhn is an award-winning climate journalist, according to his personal website. As CNN reported, his work has appeared in National Geographic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Atlantic.
He was reported missing after failing to board his scheduled flight back to the United Kingdom on Monday, August 4, CBS News confirmed.
Silchenko told CNN that she initially believed everything was fine after he sent her a photo from the trail.
“I started to worry slightly on Sunday, but then I thought that it’s Norway and it’s totally normal to be out of connection in the mountains,” she explained. “So I [decided to] wait and … do something if he’s not back online on Monday.”
She added that her husband is “obsessed with the Arctic,” glaciers, and snowy landscapes.
“He loves explorers, and he’s a climate journalist, so for him it is always that story — that now, because of climate change, they’re all shrinking — and he’s trying his best to go to the coldest countries,” Silchenko said.
