American journalist Alec Luhn says he is “grateful to be alive” after surviving six days in Norway’s Folgefonna National Park with a broken leg and minimal supplies. The 38-year-old climate and foreign-affairs reporter slipped down a steep slope on 31 July, fracturing his femur and tearing open his backpack, which scattered his phone and water bottle. Stranded in a remote glacial valley, Luhn subsisted on a handful of granola bars and his own urine while battling dehydration and exposure. He had planned to check in periodically, but patchy reception meant no contact after the first day. His wife, Emmy-winning journalist Veronika Silchenko, alerted Norwegian authorities when he failed to board a flight on 4 August. Bad weather stalled the search until 6 August, when a Norwegian Red Cross helicopter team spotted his improvised signal— a bandana tied to a tent pole— and airlifted him to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen. Now recovering, Luhn has spoken publicly for the first time, recounting visions brought on by dehydration and the relief he felt when rescuers finally located him. The Wisconsin native, who has filed stories for The Guardian, The New York Times and The Atlantic, says the ordeal has given him a renewed appreciation for both wilderness safety and the rescue workers who saved his life.