Lying stricken on a Norwegian mountainside, this is the moment a British-based American climate change reporter was rescued after almost week alone in the wilderness.
Alec Luhn, 38, heard the helicopter flying around above him for several days but could not move because he has shattered his femur in a fall from a cliff in the Folgefonna National Park – home to three of gigantic glaciers.
The Daily Mail understands that he managed to survive by drinking rainwater as it fell and two chocolate bars he had in his bag.
‘He had nothing to drink before the rain came’, one medical source said.
Mr Luhn, who works the New York Times and the Guardian, was spotted by the rescue team because of his bright red coat. ‘He had waved to them’, police have said.
His wife Viktoria Silchenko, an award-winning filmmaker, is flying to Norway today to see him in hospital, where he is awake and talking.
She said: ‘I think it’s a miracle. I’m so grateful to all the people who were involved in the rescue. It’s the best day of my life’.
His brother Brian, who lives in the United States, said: ‘My brother Alec has been found by the rescue team. He’s being flown to the hospital to be treated for a broken femur’.
Alec was reported missing on Monday after failing to get on a flight back to the UK from Bergen, a city around 40 miles northwest of Folgefonna National Park, where Luhn was trekking.
The national park is 136,000 acre and is home to several of the country’s biggest glaciers.
He was last heard from last Thursday afternoon, with his wife, telling the New York Times that he had texted her his itinerary.
But following a massive search of the Nordic park, he was found with a serious leg injury, which he suffered the first day he set out, according to local rescuers.
Geir Arne Sunde, the head of the local air ambulance service and trauma centre, said: ‘He is seriously injured, but not critically injured.’
The reporter somehow managed to survive his days-long ordeal with very little food.
Luhn’s rescue was something of a miracle, rescuers said. Stig Hope, head of the operations leadership team at Folgefonna and a Red Cross volunteer, said: ‘I can’t remember us finding someone alive after so many days.
‘The search doesn’t always end like this – but today, it did. It’s a huge relief for everyone who’s been part of the effort.’
Local media reported that he was on holiday with his sister in the Nordic nation and decided to go out on a four-day hike on July 31 from an outdoor centre in Ullensvang on the northern edge of the park.
A 30-strong volunteer search and rescue team, along with dogs, drones and police were all sent to find him.
The operation was temporarily suspended, amid bad weather.
Tatjana Knappen, an operations manager from Vestland police, said: ‘Weather conditions started to get really bad around midnight. It was not reasonable to continue the search up in the mountains.’
Local police said the Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network fellow, a specialist in climate reporting, is an experienced mountain walker who was well-equipped.
His wife reportedly said she had not expected to hear from him for a few days, owing to the spotting signal in the park. Silchenko added that it wasn’t unusual for her husband to go on solo hikes.
But she began worrying about him by Sunday, and alerted local authorities after he failed to make it back to his return flight on Monday.
She said before his rescue: ‘I just really want him back. I can’t sleep or eat properly. It’s very hard not to know anything.’
Folgefonna National Park is known for being a popular challenge for hikers who fly in from all over the world to conquer the difficult terrain and admire its natural beauty.
The climate reporter is no stranger to exotic destinations, having reported from oil fields in Texas, drought-stricken regions of Somalia and a research ship on the North Sea.
