Rolf Stange

Born in 1973 in West Germany, I started travelling to the north in 1993 and have never stopped it since. I studied geography and geology first in Münster, later in Bonn and finished in 2002 with a »Diplom« Now I am living in Rostock at the coast of the Baltic Sea.
I am in Svalbard at least once per year since 1997. I started with guiding hiking and trekking trips for a specialised German company. While doing this, I had the chance of ‘exploring’ the island both with groups, with friends and alone, thus walking several thousand kilometers over tundra and glacier ice – and I don’t regret a single meter! In late winter 1999, I worked at Isfjord Radio/Kapp Linné at the west coast of Spitsbergen. Originally built to serve as radio station and later as ground station for satellite-based telecomunication between the other settlements in Spitsbergen and the mainland of Norway, in the 90′s Gustav Halsvik, former station cook, opened a little hotel (!) here, seasonwise only, for a couple of years. Here I saw the the beautiful arctic winter for the first time. This led to a ski adventure in April 2001, where I explored southern Spitsbergen for several weeks with ski and tent together with some friends. In April 2003 we did it again, this time in the Liverpool Land in East Greenland. As often as I can, I still travel the mainland of Scandinavia, mainly in the winter.
During the Arctic summer 2000 I worked for the first time on board the ice-strengthened vessels of Russian origin now operating for Oceanwide Expeditions. I enjoyed this way of travelling from the very first day, as these trips offer an intense experience of very remote areas with all the beauty and excitement they have to offer, landscape, history, wildlife,… since then, I am regularly travelling Svalbard, East Greenland and Antarctica, working as a guide and lecturer or as expedition leader on expedition style cruises. Doing this, I offer lectures on subjects such as glaciers, permafrost, various aspects of regional geology and plate tectonics…
While being at home in Rostock, I am writing books on these subjects. I have published “Rocks and Ice”, a book on the geography and geology of Svalbard and East Greenland, as well as a book about a ski-expedition in East Greenland.
From February to May 2006, I was in East Greenland, where I have spent a lot of time dogsledding – which is a very nice thing to do!!!

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