Journalist Alec Luhn speaks out after dramatic rescue while hiking in Norway
Alec Luhn, a 38-year-old journalist who has worked for The Guardian, The New York Times and The Atlantic, is speaking out for the first time since his dramatic rescue in Norway.
"I was grateful to be alive, grateful that I was, you know, still in one piece," Luhn told "Good Morning America" from his hospital bed.
Luhn was badly injured in a fall and had to survive six days on a remote mountain. He said he was unable to move and had little food and no water while he waited for help.
The Wisconsin native, who lives in the U.K., was reported missing on Aug. 4 after failing to board a scheduled flight from Bergen, Norway, to England. He had set out alone on a four-day hike on July 31 from Odda, a gateway to Folgefonna National Park, home to Norway’s third-largest glacier.
His wife, Emmy-winning journalist Veronika Silchenko, first alerted authorities about his disappearance.
On the first day of his hike, Luhn said disaster struck when his boot broke and he started plunging down an icy mountain.
"[I just started] sliding down this kind of really steep slope," Luhn recalled.
Luhn said he was only able to stop after slamming into a rock, a force so strong it broke his left femur, fractured his pelvis and a number of spinal vertebrae.
"I knew I wasn't going to be able to move and get out of there and so I thought, 'OK, well, I got to essentially make it for at least four days on this mountain, so that people will realize that I'm missing,'" said Luhn.
Luhn said the backpack he had been carrying, which contained a tent and sleeping bag, survived the fall but he lost his water bottle, most of his food and his cellphone.
Unable to move and with no water, Luhn said he began to fear he might die of thirst. Desperate, he resorted to drinking his own urine.
Then, on the third day, Luhn said it began to rain.
"It started to rain. I really was desperate for water," Luhn said. "I remember, just like, literally licking up every drop of water I could get."
But the rain soon turned into a powerful storm. Gale force winds and torrential rain hammered the mountain, sending streams down its slopes where Luhn was lying. Temperatures fell to near freezing, as Luhn became soaked, trying to shelter under a tent that he had managed to get over him.
Luhn said he tried to hang on to hope that he would be rescued.
"The one thing that gave me the hope and will to survive was my family -- just thinking about my wife, wanting to see her again, thinking about my parents and my brothers and sisters," Luhn said. "That’s when I called on God and called on the universe to bring me back. I would do anything to be able to see my family again. And I just love them so much that, yeah, I want to make it."
Days of bad weather forced rescuers to suspend search efforts. On Aug. 6, Norwegian police confirmed Luhn was found alive by a rescue helicopter team.
The helicopter first passed nearby without seeing him, Luhn said, leaving him fearing he may have missed his only chance of rescue. When it returned again, Luhn had tied a red piece of cloth to a walking pole, which he began waving.
"I was just yelling and waving. And finally, the door of [the helicopter] opens and somebody waves back at me and that was the moment I knew it was finally, finally over," Luhn said of the moment he was found.
He was airlifted to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen. There, he was reunited with his parents and his wife that night.
"I remember my wife said, 'I'm going to tear you a new one later but for now, I really love you,'" Luhn said.
Besides his broken femur and fractures in his pelvis and back, Luhn suffered severe frostbite on both feet. He remains in Bergen for treatment for now and expects to continue recovery in Britain in the coming weeks.
Raised in the Midwest and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Luhn spent a decade in Moscow as a foreign correspondent before shifting his focus to climate change reporting.
A Pulitzer Center fellow and Emmy nominee, he has worked in conflict zones and remote environments around the world, from Ukraine and Somalia to the Arctic and Alaska.
Luhn is also an avid and experienced hiker, who often seeks out the wilderness both professionally and personally, according to his friends and family.
He joked that his wife has banned him from hiking but he intends to hike again in the future.
Luhn also expressed deep gratitude for the Norwegian rescue teams and hospital staff and stressed the importance of being safe and making good decisions while hiking, saying he should have picked up new boots beforehand and brought a satellite phone with a tracking device for his trip.
"It's cool to go into the mountains and there's always cool new routes to be done. But all of that just pales in comparison to the love of your family. And that's something I felt I had lost sight of a little bit and getting a second chance to go and put my family first, that was huge for me," he said.
