Environmental journalist Alec Luhn missing following hike in Norway
Norwegian officials are searching for a Wisconsin-born environmental journalist who has been reported missing following a hike towards the country’s Fogelfonna National Park.
Alec Luhn, 38, was last seen the afternoon of July 31 on route to the park, according to a Facebook post from his wife Veronika Silchenko.
Slichenko told the New York Times that Luhn was an experienced hiker and that it was not uncommon for him to go on solo hikes.
“He sent me the route, and I knew there wasn’t good coverage in the area. I always track his location, and when it stopped moving, I wasn’t immediately worried, because I am used to this,” she told Norwegian newspaper VG.
Silchenko told The New York Times that she and Luhn had visited family in Bergen before the hike, before she returned to England on July 31. He did not fly back to England as scheduled on Aug. 4.
“I just really want him back,” Silchenko said to the Times. “I can’t sleep or eat properly. It’s very hard not to know anything.”
Paste BN has reached out to Silchenko for further comment.
On Aug. 5, the Norwegian Red Cross posted on X that it had concluded the day’s search without finding Luhn. Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported that the search was halted due to heavy rainfall, rising water levels in the rivers and dangerous terrain.
“Tomorrow, a large team will continue the search in collaboration with the police and several climbing groups,” the Norwegian Red Cross’ post reads. Paste BN has reached out for further comment.
Lost hiker award-winning environmental journalist
Luhn is an award-winning journalist from Stoughton, Wisconsin, according to a release by the University of Wisconsin-Madison announcing his selection for the Sharon Dunwoody Science Journalist in Residence for Spring of 2025.
He served as a foreign correspondent in Russia for the Guardian, Telegraph and VICE News for a decade before the invasion of Ukraine – according to a profile by the university.
Following the invasion, he switched to environmental reporting, earning the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Kavli Science Journalism Award – the oldest science journalism award in the U.S.
His work on the environment has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, National Geographic, New Scientist and Scientific American.
Kathleen Culver, director of the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – a part of the Paste BN Network – that Luhn has plans to work on a project at the university in 2026 following the residency.
Luhn, a graduate of the journalism school, was on campus for a week in April but mostly works remotely from the U.K., Culver said, adding she’s known Luhn since he was a student on campus.
“I’m really worried,” Culver said. “He was heading out back to the U.K. and he said, ‘I knew I would love working with students, but I didn’t know I would love it this much.’” Luhn wants to do more mentoring of students next year and Culver is working on him returning to a role at the school, she said.
“I am very much looking forward to this being a survival story,” Culver said. “And him having lots of things to tell students as he mentors them.”