In Their Own Words: Slipped Off a Glacier | 1

Summary

Against The Odds: In Their Own Words

Episode Title: Slipped Off a Glacier | 1

Host: Cassie De Pechel (Audible Originals)
Guest: Alec Loon, Climate Reporter and Survivor
Release Date: May 19, 2026
Main Theme:
Alec Loon recounts, in vivid detail and introspection, his harrowing six-day survival after slipping off a glacier and breaking his femur in Norway’s Folgefonna National Park. The episode immerses listeners in Alec’s psychological and physical ordeal, highlighting human resilience and the fine edge between adventure and disaster.

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Episode Overview

• Purpose:
  This episode features first-person storytelling from Alec Loon, a climate reporter, as he survives six days alone and gravely injured in remote Norway after a hiking accident. Alec’s narrative explores the allure and peril of wild spaces, the importance of preparation, and the power of hope—even when rescue seems uncertain.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Passion for Glaciers and the Trip

• Alec’s fascination with glaciers motivates his solo trek in Folgefonna National Park. He seeks the experience of seeing a vanishing glacier up close, aware of their impermanence due to climate change.

“A glacier is...thousands of tons of ice that are literally sculpting the landscape, carving out valleys…You feel so small, but in a good way next to a glacier.” —Alec Loon [00:43]

2. The Journey Begins: Underequipped but Undeterred

• Despite boot issues and route uncertainty, Alec presses on, improvising repairs rather than turning back.
• Encounters a French family also seeking to see the glacier before it "disappears.”

“That really resonated with me because that's kind of what I was doing as well. There is this sense of the glaciers are on borrowed time, and I want to see and experience them before they melt away.” —Alec Loon [07:29]

3. The Accident: Catastrophe on the Ridge

• Hiking late, off established trails, Alec’s taped boots lose all traction on rain-slick rocks.
• He slips and falls dozens of yards, breaking his femur and injuring his back severely.

“Completely out of control, rolling, spinning, flying down this rock…This is really bad. This is the moment in the movie where everything goes wrong.” —Alec Loon [03:01, 14:30]

• Upon stopping, instantly knows the seriousness of his fracture and head wound.

“My femur was just severed right in the middle...my left foot was out at a really weird angle because it was just kind of dangling there like a puppet on a string.” —Alec Loon [16:21]

4. Immediate Aftermath: Survival Instincts and Shock

• Tries to retrieve painkillers, but slides again, losing gear in the process; passes out from shock. [17:30–18:08]
• Awakens the next morning in confusion, realizing the severity of his predicament.

“I woke up Friday morning and had that weird moment where you wake up and you're not sure where you are...oh, God, I'm waking up into a nightmare.” —Alec Loon [19:08]

5. Assessing the Situation: No Phone, No Water, No Escape

• Attempts to reach his phone by calling out for Siri, futilely trying to trigger an emergency call. [20:27]
• Tries to fashion a splint with tent poles – “Tent poles are very flimsy...they cannot replace a working femur.” [21:49]
• Realizes he must wait days for a rescue, as his wife won’t expect him until Monday.

“I just thought, okay, well, I'm just gonna have to wait it out, and people are gonna have to come get me." —Alec Loon [21:49]

6. The Ordeal Unfolds: Basic Survival

• Struggles to rig a sunshade using his raincoat and tent poles; forced to focus on very small tasks to fight panic. [23:08–25:19]
• Begins a mantra for hope:

“Nika, please call it in,” wishing his wife would report him missing early. [25:34]

• Endures intense hunger and thirst; tries to eat but can’t swallow as dehydration sets in. Eventually drinks his own urine out of desperation.

“If it smelled bad, it tasted even worse.” —Alec Loon [28:01]

7. Emotional Toll: Regrets and Pleas

• Overwhelming regret at potentially leaving family behind, vows for another chance to see them.

“I just want to see my family again.” [29:00]

8. Weather Turns: From Heat and Thirst to Cold and Flood

• Rain finally returns; he catches and drinks rainwater from his sleeping pad.

“Nothing had ever tasted so good to me in my life.” [30:31]

• Torrential rain turns to snow, wrecking his tent and exposure worsening frostbite.

“Now I went from worrying about being too hot and dehydrated to worrying about, oh crap, I'm going to get really cold if it's snowing.” [31:39]

9. Waiting for Rescue: Hope and Despair

• By Tuesday, hope wanes as no one comes, despite the presumed time for his wife to alert authorities.

“That was the most challenging day because I didn't know what was going on...I really am kind of a needle in the haystack at this point.” [35:18]

• Struggles to get warmer, laboriously removing boots to enter sleeping bag despite searing pain.

“That was the hardest thing I did that entire time.” [37:27]

10. Rescue: The Helicopter Arrives

• Hears and sees a helicopter but is initially missed; nearly loses hope.

“Rescue was so close at hand. My salvation was so close at hand. And then they, they turned around and flew away. That was heartbreaking.” [40:34]

• Prepares a red bandana flag and is finally seen.

“That was the hallelujah moment. That was like, yes, I'm going to get out of this.” [42:31]

• Two rescuers descend, identify him, and organize extraction to the hospital.

“I'm so glad to see you guys.” —Alec Loon to rescuer Kristin [43:16]

11. Aftermath: Recovery and Reflection

• Wife and family reunite with Alec in hospital; overwhelming emotions and newfound appreciation for life.

“What a gift life is.” [45:24]

• Major injuries include a shattered femur, broken vertebrae, and frostbite (leading to the loss of two toes). Recovery is slow and uncertain.
• Inspired by other survivors, Alec remains determined to regain the ability to hike or sail again.

12. Lessons Learned: Advice from Alec

“Get out there and enjoy nature for sure, but make sure you have good equipment. Spend the extra money on a new pair of hiking boots. Buy a GPS tracker... and let somebody know where you’re going.” [47:39]

• Even in seemingly harmless, well-mapped areas, nature is unforgiving.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Survival, Hope, and Agency:

  “This is panic. This is the one thing that will definitely not help.” —Alec Loon [23:08]

• On Family and Regret:

  “Let me see my family again. I just want to see my family again.” —Alec Loon [29:00]

• On Resilience:

  “Hope dies last.” —Alec Loon [25:34]

• On the Power of Preparedness:

  “Mountains are mountains. They don't forgive errors very easily, and stuff can go wrong really quickly.” —Alec Loon [47:39]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Why Alec Loves Glaciers: [00:43]
• Glacier Melting & The French Family: [07:29]
• Boot Failure & First Warning Signs: [08:24–09:18]
• The Fall (Accident Moment): [14:30–16:14]
• Initial Self-Assessment & Shock: [19:08]
• Calling for Siri, Attempted Splint: [20:27–21:49]
• Coping with Panic: [23:08]
• First Night Alone: [26:28]
• Drinking Urine for Survival: [28:01]
• Rain & Drinking from Sleeping Pad: [30:24–30:31]
• Tent Fails, Snow Falls: [31:39]
• Darkest Moment, Fears About Rescue: [35:18]
• Helicopter Rescue – Missed and Then Spotted: [39:34, 40:34, 42:31]
• Hospital and Reunion with Family: [44:43–45:24]
• Alec’s Advice for Adventurers: [47:39]

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Conclusion

Alec Loon’s story is a stark, emotional, and practical look at how quickly an adventure can become a fight for survival. Through his own words, listeners experience the isolation, hope, doubt, and ultimate gratitude that comes with being rescued against overwhelming odds. The episode is a testament to human resolve—and a passionate argument for proper preparation in the wild.

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For Listeners

Whether you’re an adventurer, outdoor enthusiast, or simply love gripping human stories, this episode is a compelling, thought-provoking account of survival, family, and the unpredictable power of nature.

Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of against the Odds ad free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible

[Alec Loon]

app

[Cassie Depechel]

from Audible Originals. I'm Cassie Depechel and this is against the Odds in their own words. On the afternoon of July 31, 2025, 38 year old climate reporter Alec Loon was exactly where he wanted to be. Hiking around a glacier in Norway's Folgevane National Park.

[Alec Loon]

A glacier is something that's so still and quiet, but at the same time is full of this incredible motion and force. We're talking about thousands of tons of ice that are literally sculpting the landscape, carving out valleys in the middle of mountains, traveling through deep time. It started 10,000 years ago and this ice is moving toward me. To me that's just, it's magical. You feel so small, but in a good way next to a glacier and you feel like your life is just a blink of an eye compared to the tens of thousands of years this thing might have been going.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec and his wife had just spent the week in Bergen in the southwest of Norway, visiting his sister who had recently moved there. His parents flew out from the US to join them. When planning the trip, Alex saw how close they'd be to the Folgofana glacier and knew he had to make a pilgrimage.

[Alec Loon]

It's this 60 square mile hunk of ice on top of a mountain, just white pure ice cap with that deep blue glacier ice underneath. I wasn't going to go to Norway and miss the opportunity to get out and see a glacier up close.

[Cassie Depechel]

So Alec and his wife made a plan. She would fly back to their flat outside of London. The next day, Alec would embark on a four night solo backpacking trip in the national park and then fly home. An experienced backpacker, Alec always had his gear packed and ready to go. He'd climbed mountains at high altitudes, spent time in the remote wilderness, even reported a story deep in the Alaskan bush. So he had no reservations about heading into Fulgofana alone. It was going to be a strenuous hike at most.

[Alec Loon]

I was not thinking this was going to be particularly challenging because it was only four, four nights and it was in a national park in norway. It wasn't 50 miles from the nearest road, it was just a couple miles from the nearest road.

[Cassie Depechel]

But what Alec thought would be a routine excursion turned out much different. Hiking late into the evening on the first night, he slipped on a ridge

[Alec Loon]

and I was just completely out of control, rolling, spinning, flying down this rock. And I remember thinking to myself, this is really bad. This is the moment in the movie where everything goes wrong.

[Cassie Depechel]

Today Alec is here to share his six day fight for survival. In his own words, this is slipped off a glacier.

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[Cassie Depechel]

On the morning of Thursday, July 31, 2025, environmental reporter Alec Lune set out on a journey into Norway's Folgefauna National Park. He'd said goodbye to his wife, Nika the night before and given her the general itinerary of his route along the glacier. They'd see each other again four days later when he'd catch a flight back to London. Alec boarded a bus in Bergen, bound for the park and started winding through the hills of the Norwegian countryside.

[Alec Loon]

You're going through these mountains, you're going along fjords. There's never a straight road, it's always curving around something or another. There's all these beautiful mountains around. I'm about to go on this backpacking adventure and I just, yeah, I felt great. Eventually the bus got to a town called Oda which is my embarking point for this hike, got off the bus, hike along this beautiful aquamarine lake that's fed by the glacier melt water.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alex surveyed the landscape, consulting his map and taking stock of the route he'd planned.

[Alec Loon]

The whole thing, there is these valleys, you have these mountains, you have the glacier on top of the mountains, and then there are all these valleys coming out around the glacier. And each one of those valleys is centered around a river that's being fed by the glacier. Looking at the map, I couldn't really see a way between the valleys. Everyone just does day hikes essentially. It seems like there where you hike up the valley, see the glacier, then you hike back out. But I couldn't really see a path to do what I wanted to do, which was to go around the glacier. I wanted to go for a couple days, I wanted to see a couple different valleys, a couple different parts of the glacier. So I was basically going to bushwhack. I was going to go up one valley and then bushwhack over into the next valley and then bushwhack over into the valley after that. So I was connecting the dots between these established trails. That was where I was a bit naive and where I didn't have that on the ground knowledge that might have helped me a bit because I knew it was going to be steep and I knew there was going to be a ridge I'd have to climb over. But I didn't know how it was going to be exactly getting from one valley to another.

[Cassie Depechel]

But Alec pushed on. It was summer in Norway. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and mild. And having spent time in the mountains where the weather can change on a dime, Alec had packed his three season gear, including a warm sleeping bag, just to be safe.

[Alec Loon]

It was several miles up the road to where the actual trail up to the glacier starts. And I caught a ride with this French family in a camper van. I remember the husband telling me how he, he wanted to show his son the glacier before it melted away. And that really resonated with me because that's kind of what I was doing as well. And Folgefauna glacier, they say, is going to disappear within 150 years. So there is this sense of the glaciers are on borrowed time and I want to see and experience them before they melt away. And then late morning we said goodbye and I just started hiking straight up the trail. And you know, it's a pretty well worn trail. A lot of people do that hike. It was all easy to find. Plenty of People. And then maybe about halfway up, things started to go wrong.

[Cassie Depechel]

In the past, Alec had trouble with hiking boots. He tried different brands, but it was hard to find the right fit for his narrow feet. So before the trip, he ordered a pair of lightly used boots off ebay that he thought would solve the problem.

[Alec Loon]

I didn't expect this to be a super challenging hike, so I thought that it wouldn't be a super big deal to have this secondhand pair of boots on that I didn't really know that well.

[Cassie Depechel]

But just about two hours into the hike, Alex started having trouble with his left boot.

[Alec Loon]

That hiking boot totally failed. The sole of the hiking boot started coming off. The rubber sole started coming off the rest of the boot. And I remember somebody coming along the trail, and they said to me, oh, is that a feature? You know, just joking with me about, like, this boot that's clearly having this major malfunction with the sole coming off the boot.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec considered heading back to town to buy a new pair of boots, but he'd made it all the way out to the trail and didn't want to turn around. When he was just starting to make headway.

[Alec Loon]

I had some athletic tape with me, so I put the boot back on and kind of wrapped athletic tape around the entire boot to just strap the sole of the boot on. And then I did it to the other boot as well, because I was afraid the same thing was gonna happen with the sole of the other boot. So just to stop it from even starting, I wrapped that boot as well. So I didn't think it was gonna be a problem. But looking back on it, it was a terrible idea. And I should have turned back right then and there. But I just really didn't want to go back into town. I really wanted to get out into the mountains, get out to the glacier. And I just told myself, well, you know, I'm going to go up this valley, and I'm going to cross over into the next valley. And that valley also goes out into the town. So I can just have a night on the mountain tomorrow. I can go into town and deal with this boot situation, basically making excuses why I didn't have to deal with it. So I jerry rigged the boots, got them in more or less working order, and then kept up the trail.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec forged ahead. His boot hack seemed to work, and a few hours later, he made it up to the glacier.

[Alec Loon]

Just this long funnel of blue ice cascading down into the valley. Lots of crevasses and cirocs and cracked, jaggedy ice that's this bright blue color, this just otherworldly blue glow to it. And that's one of the beautiful things about glaciers, is that blue, blue ice. There were waterfalls coming down the valley on one side that this river of meltwater was just pouring out of. And so, yeah, it was beautiful. It was great. And there was a lot of people up there taking pictures, people having a picnic.

[Cassie Depechel]

As stunning as it was, Alec knew from the map there was another spot further up the mountain where he could see more of the glacier and escape the crowds.

[Alec Loon]

So I just started climbing up and there wasn't even really a trail, but every once in a while I was seeing a little blaze, a little X spray painted on a rock showing that people had gone this way before, even though there wasn't a really defined trail. But basically I was just kind of heading up the mountainside through the bushes. Kept climbing higher, and the bushes thinned out and there were more and more rocks, more and more boulders. I was getting higher up in elevation and there was nobody around. I had the whole mountainside to myself the whole way up. Didn't see anyone. Got to this beautiful black lake of meltwater, no one around it, and then walked right up to the glacier, went right up and touched the ice, this bright, electric blue ice. Saw the texture of it. It's like nothing else. It's got these dimples in it that just repeat endlessly. So it's this kind of shimmering surface in the blue ice. Just beautiful. And all by myself, right next to the glacier, next to this lake in the middle of these mountains, was exactly what I was looking for. I had spent probably a little too much time taking in the glacier and, you know, it was already getting on towards evening.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alex's goal that first day was to hike up to the glacier, then cross the ridge that led down into the next valley and find a place to camp. It was getting late, but because it was the middle of summer in Norway, he could hike until 10 or 11pm before it got dark. The sunset bathed the sky in a lingering golden glow.

[Alec Loon]

And then I started to make my way over the ridge to the next valley. And I'm traversing this very steep slope and there's no trail. And it was taking me a couple hours basically to make it over this ridge. It was already evening and I started to think to myself, I probably should think about camping. But at the same time, my goal the next day is to enjoy the next valley and the next part of the glacier. So I kept going and it sprinkled a little bit it rained just a little bit and the rocks were a little bit slippery. And I remember I slipped on a rock and fell onto one knee.

[Cassie Depechel]

The smooth athletic tape Alec had wrapped around the tread of his hiking boots left him with very little traction, especially on the wet rocks.

[Alec Loon]

But, you know, at that point, I was already kind of committed to this, so I just kept going, which was a huge mistake in hindsight. So then I was coming across this gigantic rock that was very steep and fell away down the mountain for several dozen yards. This kind of sheetrock on the mountain, Just one big gigantic rock.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec needed to get beyond the rock to make it to the other side of the ridge, where he wanted to camp. Having tackled similar terrain countless times before, Alec didn't give it a second thought, even with his taped together boots.

[Alec Loon]

So I was coming across this giant rock at the very top of it, and suddenly my foot slipped and I started going down that steep face of the rock. And I remember scratching with my hiking pole, trying to get some purchase to stop me from sliding. The rock was just so slick. The hiking pole was just scratching at nothing. And so just immediately just slipped straight down the rock. It's just like a slide going down the mountain. Basically. Immediately lost control, started picking up speed, cartwheeling, bouncing, rolling down this rock, essentially because the backpack was a lot of weight hanging off my back. So that kind of pulled me down the mountain and then started rolling me over and over. It was like being caught in the spin cycle of a washing machine. Everything was speeding up. I was flying really fast down the mountain. I was spinning faster and faster. I was completely out of control. And I remember I was scared, but it almost felt like it was happening to somebody else because I just had no control over myself at all. And I remember thinking to myself, this is really bad. This is the moment in the movie where everything goes wrong. I had these two emotions. One was the kind of weird, detached fear, like, wow, this guy who's flying down the mountain is heading for a mess of trouble. But then also thinking, this guy is me and this is going to be a really bad situation. And I slid all the way down to the bottom of that giant rock and crashed into a boulder.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec had been tossed several dozen yards down the mountain before the boulder broke his fall.

[Alec Loon]

I reached one hand up to my head and I felt just blood trickling down my hair. And somehow I knew right away that I had broken my femur. So I reached down and I touched my thigh and the femur was just severed right in the middle of. Was this weird feeling like holding a chicken breast or something, where the muscle is all intact but there's nothing giving it form, there's nothing giving it structure. It's just kind of wobbling there because the two halves of my upper leg are not connected by bone anymore. So my femur had been severed. The femur on my left leg, my left foot was out at a really weird angle because it was just kind of like dangling there like a puppet on a string, basically.

[Cassie Depechel]

Despite the gash on his head and a broken leg, Alec didn't feel any pain. He was still in shock from the fall. But even in his dazed state, Alec knew it was only a matter of time before he'd be hurting bad. Then he remembered the bottle of Advil in his backpack.

[Alec Loon]

Somehow I was like, okay, got an injury. Need to make sure I have my painkillers at hand. So I take off my backpack, get the painkillers, put them in my jacket pocket and zip it up. But then in doing that, I'd kind of shifted on the mountain a little bit. So then I start to slide down the mountain again. And I just remember being absolutely terrified because I was like, oh, no, not again.

[Cassie Depechel]

In the scramble, Alec didn't have time to zip up his backpack. Gear and supplies spilled from his pack as he tumbled another 20 yards to the bottom of the slope.

[Alec Loon]

And then I remember I just hugged my backpack, put my head down on my backpack, and just passed out. Foreign.

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[Cassie Depechel]

In the waning hours of Thursday, July 31, Alec Loon fell several dozen yards down a rock face in Norway's Folgefauna National Park. Alec awoke Friday morning badly injured and alone.

[Alec Loon]

So I woke up Friday morning and had that weird moment where you wake up and you're not sure where you are, what's going on. I remember just looking up at the sky and thinking, what happened? And then remembering what had happened the night before and thinking, oh, God, I'm waking up into a nightmare.

[Cassie Depechel]

Basically, Alex started to take stock of his situation.

[Alec Loon]

First thing is, where's my cell phone? I feel in my pockets and stuff. No cell phone. Okay, crap, my cell phone must have fell out of my pocket. And so I look up the hill and I see my cooking pot, which had come out of my backpack. And this aluminum cooking pot had just Been smashed in in, like, a weird form, like an origami flower.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec thought maybe his cell phone was up on the mountainside with the broken pot and several other items that had been scattered.

[Alec Loon]

So I started to try and push myself on my butt up the mountain. And that's when I kind of realized that I had more than just the femur broken.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec's hands, elbows, and arms were scraped raw and bloody. And then there was his back, which ached every time he tried to turn his body.

[Alec Loon]

And I just. I just could not get myself up the mountain because my broken leg was dragging, and that was really painful because my foot would kind of catch on a rock, and then that jolt of pain would shoot through my leg. My back was hurting a lot every time I moved, and I just couldn't get any force. It was like I was this weak, just limp straw man that had none of my strength in me when I just couldn't push myself up this steep hill, Really, I got a couple feet and then just had to give it up. There was no way I could climb up that hill in the state I was in. So I started yelling, hey, Siri. Because I thought maybe my phone would be in yelling range and I could activate Siri, get Siri to call emergency services. So I was yelling, hey, Siri, call 112. Hey, Siri, call 911. Hey, Siri, call emergency. And I just kept on yelling, and I just couldn't get a reaction.

[Cassie Depechel]

But Alex still had his tent and thought he could make a splint for his leg with the poles and some rope. He could then try the climb again. And even if he couldn't find his phone, maybe he'd be able to get down the mountain himself. Making a splint was easier said than done, though.

[Alec Loon]

Tent poles are very flimsy, flexible things. They do not work well for a splint. Unfortunately, they cannot replace a working femur. I couldn't figure out how to make a splint or get myself to the point where I could move around. I kept on yelling, but I couldn't get my phone to react. I just kind of didn't have any other options at that point. And so at that point, I just thought, okay, well, I'm just gonna have to wait it out, and people are gonna have to come get me. And then the next thought is, okay, well, that's gonna take a while, because I only just started the hike. My wife is expecting me to be off the grid for a couple days. She's not gonna know for sure that anything has gone wrong until Monday, which is three days from now, and not even Monday, but Monday evening, because I had an evening flight. So I'm like, okay, well, I have to be ready to make it three more days on this mountain.

[Cassie Depechel]

So Alex started to hunker down for the long haul. He blew up his sleeping pad to try to make himself more comfortable. But as the morning wore on, he was confronted with yet another challenge.

[Alec Loon]

It was getting very sunny and very hot, actually, on this mountain face. You know, I was facing south, so I'm just sitting there right in the sun, and I didn't have any water. One of the things that came out when I was sliding down the mountain was my water bottle. So I didn't have my water pouch with me, didn't have my filter, didn't have any sort of water. The sun is not making it any better. It's dehydrating me. So I remember thinking, okay, I need to, like, rig up some shade. So I took one of my tent poles, Snapped it together, Stuck it through the arms of my raincoat, and then bent it and pushed it up so that my raincoat was hanging over me and creating this sunshade. And then, you know, it was, like, hours of just trying to keep that sunshade between me and the sun because it wasn't going to stay up on its own. So I was kind of, like, holding it there, and then I'd kind of doze off, and the sunshade would fall, and I'd wake up and then put it back up, Just trying to make myself comfortable. I remember the panic starting to hit me that first day, and it was like the panic was rising through me that, oh, my God, you know, this is really serious. I might not make it out of this life. And just being terrified by that thought. But then I also had the thought that, okay, this is panic. This is the one thing that will definitely not help. And I just had this instinct to just push that panic back down Whenever it started to rise in my chest. I would just try to focus on little things that I could do, Little things I could control, little things to make myself more comfortable, to help myself last. Over this time period, I knew I was going to have to last. Just trying to take it step by step and feel like I had a little bit of agency over what was going to happen to me. Really, I didn't have much agency. I was basically relying on somebody to come rescue me. But being able to feel like I could at least improve my chances a little bit or do something was so important to keep going and not to give in to panic and not to give in to despair.

[Cassie Depechel]

Through the afternoon, Alec had no appetite, but he forced himself to eat one of the granola bars he'd packed for the trip. He took Advil to manage the pain in his leg and back as best he could. Just anything to keep himself going.

[Alec Loon]

It's funny, you know, hope dies last. And I just. I had this. I had a little bit of optimism in me that somebody would come by or somebody would notice that I was missing. I had a couple thoughts that just kept running through my head repeatedly over those days, and one of them was just, you know, my wife's name is Nika, and I was just, you know, nika, please call it in. I just remember repeating that to myself over and over again, just kind of trying to will it into being that my wife would just somehow get a bad feeling and call me in. Missing early before I actually missed the flight. That was one of these mantras that I had. And I just needed something to keep telling myself to keep going.

[Cassie Depechel]

By nightfall, Alec was drained and exhausted, but the darkness gave him a welcome break from the hot sun.

[Alec Loon]

The night was super peaceful. I mean, I was in pain and I wasn't having a great time by any stretch of the imagination, but I felt like I was alone on that entire mountain. I didn't see anything else. No people, no animals, no nothing. So it was very quiet up there. And at the end of the day, I just crawled into my sleeping bag and just slept out under the stars. Basically. Woke up the next day on Saturday and it's another sunny, hot day, and I started to get really concerned about getting dehydrated. I thought back to, like, summer camp when I was a kid and learning about first aid and survival at Boy Scout camp. And I remember hearing, you know, the human body can only go two or three days without water and just thinking, oh, crap, this is what's happening to me now.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec now faced a second day without water.

[Alec Loon]

I knew I was getting dehydrated because I couldn't even eat the granola bar anymore. There wasn't any saliva, and I just couldn't. I couldn't swallow the granola bar down because I just had no lubrication at all. It was just like concrete in my mouth. I remember thinking, well, you know, I've heard survival stories where people drink their own urine. Maybe that's worth a try.

[Cassie Depechel]

So Alec found an empty pouch in his backpack and gave it a go.

[Alec Loon]

I remember lifting it to my lips and Just the smell, retching at that smell. And if it smelled bad, it tasted even worse.

[Cassie Depechel]

He could only stomach a few sips here and there.

[Alec Loon]

But I was just trying to focus on what I could do to try and improve my chances to try to make it to Monday evening.

[Cassie Depechel]

As Saturday wore on, Alec drifted in and out of consciousness.

[Alec Loon]

I was sleeping a lot because my body was just struggling to kind of deal with it all. I thought about my family a lot and I thought if this really is the end and I don't make it out of here, what a shame. What a huge waste that I didn't spend more time with my wife and my family because I'm from the us, I live in London, I've lived abroad for more than a decade. I see my family over Christmas basically. And so just thinking back on that was really gutting because here I was gallivanting around the world and you know, seeing my family once a year, maybe twice a year, and now I might never have a chance to see them again. And so that was something that I repeated to myself over and over ad nauseam. Just let me see my family again. I just want to see my family again.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec awoke Sunday morning having now spent three nights stranded on the mountain, facing severe dehydration.

[Alec Loon]

So Sunday, Sunday was the day that the weather turned. I woke up and it was kind of cloudy, wasn't sunny anymore. It's just a thick carpet of cloud all the way across the sky. And then in the afternoon on Sunday it started to rain and it just felt amazing on my face. After two days of being really hot, being really dehydrated just felt so great. And I opened my mouth up to the try and catch some rain in my mouth, but there are very small droplets of rain at first. So I remember I was like scrounging around trying to figure out how I'm going to be able to utilize some of this water that's falling down.

[Cassie Depechel]

Eventually, Alec noticed some rainwater collecting in a crease of his blow up sleeping pad.

[Alec Loon]

And then I bent down and slurped up the water from the crease in the sleeping pad. I was so desperate for water, nothing had ever tasted so good to me in my life. Hours were spent just slurping up this rainwater as it gradually gathered up in this crease and I just couldn't get enough of it.

[Cassie Depechel]

By Sunday evening, the slow trickle of rain started to pick up. Alec could now fill his pouch with water streaming down the mountainside. But while the rainstorm solved one problem, Alec's dire Need for water. It created another.

[Alec Loon]

It's getting really windy, getting really rainy. This cold wind was blowing down the mountain. I was getting soaked through, and I just thought, okay, I need some shelter, because it's getting really cold and wet. So I got my tent out, but because there was so much wind blowing down off the glacier, as soon as I set my tent up, it started getting blown down the mountain.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec tried frantically to weigh the corners of the tent down with rocks he picked up off the ground around him, but to no avail.

[Alec Loon]

And I even got into the tent at one point, thinking that, okay, maybe my body can just weigh the tent down. And then the tent starts blowing down the hill when I'm in it. And so eventually, I just popped the poles out, took them out of the tent, and just had this kind of mess of attempt, just this collapsed tent. And I thought, well, at least that'll be better than nothing if I'm under the nylon, and went to sleep. And the weather just kept getting worse and worse. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and looking out of the tent and it was pretty dark, but there was this kind of white stuff around. I put my hand out, and it was snow. And that was obviously a shock because now I went from, you know, worrying about being too hot and dehydrated to worrying about, oh, crap, I'm gonna get really cold if it's snowing. That was the first indication that this was a serious storm rolling in. This was a serious bout of weather coming my way, and it was gonna be a whole new challenge.

[Cassie Depechel]

Thankfully, the snow was wet enough that not much accumulated on the tent or Alec. But the storm showed no sign of letting up.

[Alec Loon]

And so I woke up on Monday morning, and it's raining harder than ever. It was so dark. The sky was just so dark. I remember looking up at those clothes clouds, and they were just angry black clouds. Lots of wind, lots of water. Just a miserable situation. I was super, super wet, super cold, and I was just in my sleeping bag in the tent, trying to stay as warm as possible from that point on. I had all my wet gear on. I had my waterproof pants on, my raincoat on. I was in the tent. But it just didn't help. There was just so much rain coming down that it eventually got through everything, and I was completely soaked. I felt like I was just barely holding on at that point because the weather was just getting so bad. At that point. It was still Monday. I'm still like, okay, Neeka, please just call it in. This is the Day my wife's gonna notice that I'm missing. I just gotta make it through to the evening. I don't know what's gonna happen then, but I was so close to the goal that was pushing me on. I was still motivated at that point, even though it was a really hard day. But then when I woke up on Tuesday, then it was like, what? Now I've made it to the goal. I made it through Monday evening. That was when my wife was going to notice that I was missing, call this in to the authorities, and they were going to come rescue me. But that hadn't happened. It was the loneliest feeling in the world, being up on that mountain in the middle of a storm with no one knowing where I was.

[Cassie Depechel]

It was Thursday when Alec Lune slipped while hiking around a glacier in Norway's Folgefauna national park, breaking his left femur and injuring his back. It was now Tuesday, the day after his wife should have reported him missing. But the rescue party Alec had expected the night before hadn't come Tuesday.

[Alec Loon]

That was the most challenging day because I didn't know what was going on. I knew that I had been missed, but the fact that nobody was coming meant that there was something wrong. And I thought, wow, you know, the weather's just so bad. Maybe they're just not able to reach me right now because the weather is so bad. That's when I really started to get worried. Like, maybe it's not just enough to wait here. Maybe that's not going to be enough. Maybe I'm not going to get out of this. I just started praying for my life, basically, and just saying, please, God, just let me live. Let me survive this. Help me survive this. Because at that point, I was starting to lose hope. I knew I was in a pretty remote area and it wasn't like, somewhere that it would be easy to get to, especially in the rain. I was planning to cover 30 miles during this hike, and I could have gone missing. I could have had an accident at any point in that 30 miles or so. So my wife knows my rough route that I'm going around this glacier, but she wouldn't know where along the route that I would have disappeared. So I'm thinking more and more about how difficult it is to find me, how I really am kind of a needle in the haystack at this point. Tuesday was super hard. Tuesday night was super hard. So wet, so cold. Any time I tried to move, I would be in pain from my back, from my leg, you know, my leg was dangling Like a sock full of quarters. And my foot would just catch on stuff. And every time my foot would come, it was just this jolt of searing pain.

[Cassie Depechel]

Until then, Alec had draped a sleeping bag over himself like a blanket, because with his boots on, he just couldn't maneuver his way inside it. And bending down to untie his boots sent waves of pain shooting down his back and leg. So Alec let his boots poke out uncovered. But now he was getting colder and colder and was willing to try anything to get inside his sleeping bag for a little more warmth. So he decided that no matter how difficult it was, he was going to take off his boots.

[Alec Loon]

And it was just so, so painful. But I just, like, knew that I needed to get this boot off. It just took forever. It was just agonizing. That was like the hardest thing I did that entire time.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec was finally able to get his boots off and his whole body zipped up.

[Alec Loon]

I remember being in the sleeping bag with my boots off. My feet are just in these wet socks. And I remember like kind of scrunching my feet up and moving my feet in the sleeping bag, trying to like, rub them against the sleeping bag, create a little bit of warmth in there and just nothing. They're just so wet and so cold. I tried to warm up a bit and I just couldn't. And I was just so exhausted and just kind of drifted off again into sleep. Woke up on Wednesday and popped my head out of the tent and it was still raining. It wasn't great. But then about mid morning on Wednesday, I remember looking to the south and this kind of hole was opening in the clouds and this white light starting to kind of burn through the clouds to the south where the sun was. It was like when you see a shaft of light coming through the clouds. It looks like a beam of light just coming down from the heavens. It looked hopeful. It was like, okay, that looks, that looks promising. A little bit of light coming through the clouds. After so many days, the rays of

[Cassie Depechel]

sun offered a little hope. But Alec was in bad shape. After six days stranded on the mountain, he was in nearly constant pain and barely able to eat. No matter how much rainwater he drank, he never felt hydrated. Alec started hearing voices and thought maybe a search party was coming to find him. But then the noise would fade away. Throughout his ordeal, Alec had heard occasional rumblings in the sky. When nothing materialized, he figured it was an airliner flying its usual route. But as the rain tapered off and the sky brightened on Wednesday afternoon, Alec heard a sound that was unmistakable.

[Alec Loon]

I Heard this rumbling coming up the valley. And you know, at first it's just sort of indistinct rumbling, but then it gets closer and closer. And then I'm like, I've heard that sound before. That's a helicopter. And it's just that wump, wump, wump, you know, really kind of rhythmic chopping of a helicopter coming up the valley. And then I see it come up out of the valley and it's this orange and white helicopter. So I'm seeing it kind of across the ridge. It's over by the glacier where I'd started my hike. Then I heard this heavenly music playing, like a giant pipe organ just hitting this beautiful chord. And that was just my relief at seeing this helicopter, you know, it was. I could hear my own relief at seeing the rescue helicopter.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec's relief was short lived.

[Alec Loon]

The problem was the helicopter's over by the glacier, just scanning the mountain several hundred yards away from where I am. I'm yelling and waving, but they're just too far away. Rescue was so close at hand. My salvation was so close at hand. And then they, they turned around and flew away. And that was heartbreaking. I mean, that was devastating. My, my heart was in my throat. I was like, no.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec felt crushed. But as a journalist who traveled to far flung places, he knew how often helicopters needed to refuel. He figured maybe they just gas up and fly right back to the ridge to resume the search.

[Alec Loon]

15 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour, and they're not coming back. I was kind of detached at that point. I kind of realized people after they've been adrift at sea for so long or after they've been in some sort of situation for a long, you know, days and days and days, you start to see how they can just kind of give up. It's not that they're like, oh, I don't want to live anymore. That's it, I give up. It's like you are just so numb to everything because you've been through so much that you just can't care anymore if you live or die. And I was starting to feel a little bit of that at that point, you know, where it's like, I can't even care anymore what happens. It's just been going on for so long, this awful experience. About 45 minutes later, I hear that rumbling. It comes back up the ridge and I'm like, yes, helicopter's coming back. I cannot miss this chance.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec threw off his gray outer layer to reveal a bright red puffer jacket. He quickly fashioned A makeshift flag with a red bandana and tent pole. Barely able to lift his arms, Alec began to wave the flag and cry out.

[Alec Loon]

And then I just started yelling and waving that little flag of a red bandana on a tent pole with all my might. And it just was agonizing. It was minutes and minutes and minutes and minutes and they're just slowly scanning the mountain and I just can't get their attention. And finally, finally I see the side door of the helicopter slides open and somebody waves back at me. And that's when it all came together. That was the hallelujah moment. That was like, yes, I'm gonna get out of this. They're gonna rescue me. It's finally happening.

[Cassie Depechel]

Moments later, two rescuers in orange jumpsuits rappelled down a rope to Alec's position on the mountain.

[Alec Loon]

One of the rescuers comes over to me and says, hey, I'm Kristen. Are you Alec? And I said, yes, I am. I'm so glad to see you guys. And she said, we're so glad to see you.

[Cassie Depechel]

Kristin and her partner Lasse bundled Alec into a sack for warmth. After another 30 minute wait for refueling, the helicopter returned to airlift Alec off the glacier to Bergen Hospital.

[Alec Loon]

I remember being in the helicopter on the way to life again, journeying back to life, just thinking, my God, it's finally going to be over.

[Cassie Depechel]

At the hospital, Alex says he got the celebrity treatment. His wife had gotten a bad feeling when he hadn't touched base and called him in as missing. Early on Monday, even before his flight, reports of a stranded American journalist made it to newspapers and tv. The rescue operation had involved the Bergen police, Norwegian military and 50 Red Cross volunteers.

[Alec Loon]

There was just so much warmth and kindness and it was the very best of the human spirit on display and all those people who were helping me.

[Cassie Depechel]

On Wednesday evening, the hospital staff reached Neeka on the phone.

[Alec Loon]

Just hearing my wife's voice, you know, we were both crying. I mean, it was. I was just so happy to hear her voice. She said something like, I was so worried about you. I'm so glad they found you. Don't ever do that again. I'm gonna rip you a new one for going off like that and getting lost. But for now, I'm just super happy that you're safe. And she flew in right away to see me. And my parents came in. My sister and her family came to visit me.

[Cassie Depechel]

Alec remembers the terrified look on his sister's face when she first saw him laid up in the hospital bed.

[Alec Loon]

And when I saw that look on her face. I just realized what a horrible ordeal I had put my loved ones through. And I realized how worried they had been and how terrible this had been for them as well. And I just broke out crying and my sister broke out crying as well. That brought it all home to me. And I realized, wow, I almost died. I almost lost my family, and my family almost lost me. It was the most incredible feeling in the world. You know, being in this hospital room with my wife and my parents and my sister. It was super emotional, and I was just so grateful to be alive. It felt just. Every breath felt amazing. Every moment of just being alive was so incredible. And I just realized, you know, what a gift life is.

[Cassie Depechel]

In addition to a shattered femur, Alec broke three vertebrae in his back, which helped explain why he had so much trouble moving. His feet had lost all circulation and had turned completely white from frostbite. He spent five weeks recovering in the hospital before heading home to London. Alex says he's so grateful to everyone who helped save his life. More than six months after the fall, he's still raw with the physical and emotional trauma of the ordeal. His leg's not fully healed. Two of his toes had to be surgically removed, and he still has trouble walking without crutches. Alec hopes to one day be able to sail and even hike again, but he knows nothing is guaranteed. Since his rescue, survivors of similar injuries have reached out to Alec to give him words of encouragement. Some are even training for the Paralympics. Alec says if they can persevere and pursue their dreams, he can do the same. Alec has some of his own advice for people seeking adventure in the mountains.

[Alec Loon]

Get out there and enjoy nature for sure, but make sure you have good equipment. Spend the extra money on a new pair of hiking boots. Buy a GPS tracker. Just bring it on every hike. I've used them before. I didn't think I needed it on this hike. And then when you least expect it, something goes wrong and then let somebody know where you're going. That was the one thing I really did right, was let my wife know loosely where I was going so that she was able to tell people, okay, well, this is. This is where you got to look, because this is what he was going to try to do. I thought this was going to be an easy hike. You know, I've been way off the grid in Alaska. I can surely handle this hike in, you know, the middle of populated Norway. But, you know, mountains are mountains. They don't forgive errors very easily, and stuff can go wrong really quickly. So just try to take smart risks and be prepared.

[Cassie Depechel]

Thanks so much to Alec Loon for sharing his story with us.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Follow against the Odds on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of against the Odds ad free by joining Audible.

[Cassie Depechel]

From Audible Originals. This is slipped off a glacier for against the Odds. To hear more stories from survivors in their own words, check out our other episodes. Stranded in Joshua, Shark Attack Survivor and Trapped After a Car Crash Produced by Audible I'm your host Cassie Depechel. Peter Arcuni wrote and produced this episode. Sound design by Kyle Randall engineered by Sergio Enriquez original theme music by Scott Paul Velasquez and 2K for freeze on Sync series produced by Emily Frost Managing Producer Desi Blaylock senior producers Andy Herman and Austin Rachlis Executive Producer for Audible Jenny Lauer Beckman, Head of Audible Originals North America Marshall Louie Chief Content Officer Rachel Gyazza sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC.