WASHINGTON (TNND) — Severe weather conditions are slowing search and rescue volunteers working to locate an American journalist in a Norwegian national park who has been missing since Monday.
Alec Luhn, a climate journalist from Wisconsin, was reported missing by his wife after failing to board his flight home to the U.K. He was on a solo backpacking trip in Norway.
The Norwegian Red Cross announced on X that the search, which started on Monday, was expanded on Tuesday. Rescue dogs are also involved in the search.
“Poor weather and heavy rainfall have created challenges,” the post reads, translated from Norwegian, “The search will continue into the evening.
Luhn’s wife Veronika Silchenko, last heard from the journalist on July 31 in Odda, Norway. He was preparing to set off on a hike in Folgefonna National Park, located in the southwestern area of Norway.
The national park is centered around the third-largest glacier on mainland Norway and has different hiking trails located within the park. In a post on Facebook, Silchenko says Luhn was planning to explore the glacier in the park.
Luhn was an experienced hiker, completing challenging hikes in difficult weather before.
Silechnko said she while she was always slightly worried when Luhn would go on his hikes, she initially thought he was hard to reach in an area lacking cellphone signals.
“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,” Silchenko told CNN, “on Monday, we decided that we need to call the services, because he should have gotten out of the park by that time and probably would have been able to find the internet. So we started really panicking.”
Luhn has previously worked with news outlets such as National Geographic, The New York Times and The Atlantic. Currently, Luhn is based in London.