Christian Engelke

Christian is one of PolarQuest's highly knowledgeable and popular expedition leaders, with extensive experience in our polar regions. He has spent many years in various locations in northern Norway, Svalbard, and Greenland. In recent years, he has led our whales and northern lights expeditions in northern Norway, as well as several of our expeditions in Svalbard.

Christian was born in Germany, but ever since he first set foot in Norway in 1996, he has been infected with the “Scandinavia bug.” Since then, he has explored the mountains and coastal regions of Norway and Sweden on foot, on skis, and by kayak. All these adventures have also meant that he has learned to speak Scandinavian.

In 2008, Christian's studies in industrial engineering took him to Svalbard, where he spent three unforgettable years. He then moved to “southern latitudes” and settled in Tromsø in northern Norway, where he completed his master's degree in Technology and Safety in the High North. Christian has lived in Norway for over 13 years and has been based in Lofoten since 2018. He knows the Norwegian coast like the back of his hand and has been leading our popular whales and northern lights expeditions in northern Norway since 2016, as well as several trips from the Norwegian coast to Svalbard via Bjørnøya.

Since 2009, Christian has been working full-time as a guide, both as a kayak guide and expedition leader in Northern Norway, Svalbard, and Greenland. In addition to all his trips in Northern Norway, he has guided over 20 expeditions in Greenland and even more in Svalbard. Most of his experience in Greenland is from the area around Tasiilaq in eastern Greenland, where he spent five years organizing 14-day kayaking and hiking expeditions with overnight stays in tents. Christian loves the minimalist landscapes, polar history, encounters with wild animals, and the silence of the Arctic regions. Since 2014, he has also worked as a guide in Antarctica and South Georgia.

Christian is a generalist, but has a particular passion for giving talks on polar history, whales, glaciers, sea ice, photography, and polar bears. When he is not in the high latitudes, you will most likely find him in his sea kayak among the waves off the Norwegian coast.