A US journalist who was rescued after falling down an icy mountain and going without water for six days has opened up about how he survived.
Alec Luhn, 38, embarked on a solo four-day hike in Folgefonna National Park in Norway on July 31, that took a disastrous turn.
His boot broke and he slid down a steep slope, hit a rock and broke his left femur and fractured his pelvis and several spinal vertebrae.
To make matters worse, he lost his water bottle, food and phone amid the impact.
Luhn, an award-winning reporter who has worked for The New York Times, The Guardian and The Atlantic, knew that he had to make it through at least four days in order for his loved ones to realize he was missing and set off a search for him.
‘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 told ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday.
‘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.’
Luhn managed to keep hold of his backpack which had a tent and a sleeping bag.
He could barely move, and drank his own urine to stay alive.
On the third day, it began raining where he was stranded close to the country’s third-largest glacier.
‘I remember, just like, literally licking up every drop of water I could get,’ he said.
It became a strong storm and temperatures plunged close to freezing. Luhn lay drenched under his tent.
When the bad weather finally let up, a rescue helicopter flew over and away from Luhn. He waved a walking pole with a red cloth in the air, hoping it would return.
‘I was just yelling and waving,’ he said.
‘And finally, the door of (the chopper) opens and somebody waves back at me and that was the moment I knew it was finally, finally over.’
Luhn was transproted to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen on August 6, and that night had his wife and parents by his side.
The Wisconsin native is recovering from the broken femur and fractures and severe frostbite on his feet in Bergen, and is expected to be transferred to the UK soon.
Luhn, who was a foreign correspondent in Moscow before taking on climate change reporting, thanked the Norwegian rescue crew and hospital staff.
He joked that his wife, Emmy-winning journalist Veronika Silchenko, will not let him hike again. But he does plan to return to the mountains – albeit more equipped with new boots, a tracking device and a phone with satellite service.
‘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,’ he said.
‘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.’
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