Rescuers in Norway have resumed the search for Alec Luhn, an award-winning environmental journalist, who went missing during a solo hike in the remote Folgefonna national park. The park, home to one of Norway's largest glaciers, has been hit by bad weather, hampering efforts.
Luhn, 38, 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 from Bergen to the UK. He was holidaying with his sister and set out on the four-day hike alone on 31 July from Ullensvang on the northern edge of the 550 sq km wilderness.
Local police told NRK that a 30-strong volunteer search and rescue team from the Red Cross, dogs, drones and police were involved on Tuesday after the operation was suspended late Monday night. “Weather conditions started to get really 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 up in the mountains.”
Police said late Tuesday afternoon that volunteer rescuers had been pulled out due to fast-deteriorating weather, but the search would continue into the evening. “We have to put rescue teams’ safety first,” police chief Svein Buer told VG newspaper. Luhn is an experienced mountain walker, fit and well-equipped, police said.
His wife, Emmy-award winning journalist Veronika Silchenko, posted on social media asking anyone with information to contact her. Luhn, who has two Emmy nominations, was based in Moscow, then Istanbul, and now lives in the UK. He is a Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network fellow, specialising in climate journalism.
Folgefonna, the third largest icecap in Norway, is on a peninsula famed for fjords, mountains, rivers, lakes and icefalls. It has been a centre for wilderness adventure since the 19th century, but parts are desolate and treacherous, especially in poor weather.
