Search and rescue volunteers are fighting the bad weather and heavy rains in search of American journalists who went missing while hiking in Norwegian National Park.
Alec Rune, a climate journalist from Wisconsin, is an experienced hiker and has completed many solo trips under challenging circumstances. He was reported missing by his wife Veronica Silkenko on Monday after he was unable to return home.
Silkenko told CNN that she last spoke to Rune on Thursday as she was set out for a hike in Forgefonna National Park in southwestern Norway.
“We exchanged some texts. He told me he was going to do a hike and sent me a photo. He looked fine, the weather was fine,” she said. It was the last thing she had heard from him.
Silchenko said she was always “a little worried” when Rune was hiking, but also knew that the phone signal was patchy in the wilderness and that she didn’t worry too much until a few days later.
“I started to worry a bit on Sunday, but I thought it was Norway and it was totally normal for no connections in the mountains, so I decided (wait) to do something if he wasn’t back online on Monday,” she told CNN in a phone interview. “On Monday, he should have left the park by then and we decided we needed to call the service because we could have possibly found the internet.
The Norwegian Red Cross said in X that the search operation launched on Monday was expanded on Tuesday. He said volunteers and search and rescue dogs were involved.
Norwegian Red Cross spokesman Ingeborg Thorsland told CNN the operation was spreading across a wide area and heavy rains made navigation difficult.
“Around 30 volunteers from the Red Cross and other organizations are involved in the business. The search team is locally familiar with the terrain and has proven to be particularly challenging due to the difficult situations and harsh weather,” she said.
When the weather was allowed, drones were also in use, she said, and the alpine rescue group also assisted in the search.
CNN has asked Norwegian police for comment.
Rune, 38, works at outlets such as National Geographic, The Guardian, The New York Times and Atlantic. He currently lives in Moscow and Istanbul before being based in London.
“He’s a very kind and loving person. He loves nature. He devoted his career to writing about climate change, especially ice and the Arctic,” Silkenko told CNN.
“He’s very strong and adventurous, he’s not a fool. Alec is my favorite person in the world and I miss him so much. I hope he’ll come back as soon as possible,” she said.
