Journalist Reported Missing by His Wife After Failing to Board Flight Home Following Solo Hiking Trip
A Wisconsin-born climate journalist is missing after taking a solo hiking trip to Norway's Folgefonna National Park to see glaciers
Veronika Silchenko alerted authorities after her husband, Alec Luhn, did not make his return flight home to the U.K.
The Red Cross is reportedly assisting in the search, 'which has proven to be particularly challenging due to difficult conditions and demanding weather'An American journalist from Wisconsin has been reported missing after going on a solo hiking trip to Norway and failing to board his returning flight.
Alec Luhn, an Award-winning climate journalist as described on his personal website, was on a four-day solo backpacking trip in southern Norway's Folgefonna National Park, the Washington Post, CBS News and CNN reported Tuesday, Aug. 5.
His wife, Veronika Silchenko, said she last spoke with her husband on Thursday, July 31, while he was hiking in Odda, in southwestern Norway, per CBS News.
According to the outlet, initially, Silchenko didn't worry about not hearing from him because of Luhn's experience outdoors, thinking cell service could have been a factor. However, once he did not return to their home that evening in the U.K. Monday, Aug. 4, she and other concerned relatives contacted police.
'@alecluhn_ is missing in Norway,' Silchenko wrote on her Instagram Stories Monday, resharing a post by another user who was raising awareness about the need to locate Luhn.
'Please help us with any information,' she added.
The original post said Luhn was exploring glaciers at Folgefonna National Park and that the 'Red Cross search with volunteers and dogs and helicopters is underway in the area.'
Silchenko also spoke with CNN about the last time she communicated with her husband.
'We exchanged a few texts. He told me that he is going to hike and sent me a picture. He looked fine, the weather was fine,' she said.
https://people-app.onelink.me/HNIa/kz7l4cuf
She continued, '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, so I (decided to) wait and … do something if he's not back online on Monday."
The outlet also spoke with Ingeborg Thorsland, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Red Cross, who said, 'Around 30 volunteers from the Red Cross and other organizations have participated in the operation. The search teams are local and familiar with the terrain, which has proven to be particularly challenging due to difficult conditions and demanding weather.'
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Silchenko explained what motivated her husband to go on the solo hiking expedition, telling CBS News, "Alec is basically obsessed with the Arctic. 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 has worked for The Atlantic, National Geographic, The New York Times, Scientific American, TIME, CBS News Radio, and VICE News TV, per CBS News.
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