Heather Chrystie
Heather Chrystie
Born in England, Heather fell in love with Canada when she first visited the vast country at age 18. Since then, Canada’s wilderness, wildlife and endless exploration possibilities have regularly drawn her back.Raised to appreciate nature, Heather and her family spent long weekends sailing the Devonshire coast and camping in Wales and France on extended summer holidays. Early on, mountain climbing became an important aspect of her life, so she began making choices that enabled her to live in the mountains. In Canada, mountains mean bears, and it wasn’t long before Heather became enamored with these majestic creatures. She devoured every text about bears she could find and started guiding nature tours in grizzly bear country. Her degree in Physical Geography (aka earth sciences) solidified her understanding of natural processes and habitats. Believing we are never finished accumulating knowledge, Heather has continued to learn from many skilled, passionate naturalists and experts all over the world, and she considers every day a chance to discover something new.
Heather divides her guiding time primarily between the Canadian Rockies and Churchill, bringing her years of experience and wealth of knowledge to Nat Hab's polar bear tours. She has recently added Iceland to her guiding repertoire. Beyond Nat Hab, she further utilizes her skills as a certified hiking guide and qualified interpretive guide to lead varied groups on nature adventures, educational eco-tours and wildlife viewing excursions. Heather seeks to foster positivity in everyone who travels with her and aims to send her guests home feeling awed, inspired and with a greater understanding of the intricacies of the natural world. Outside of guiding, Heather enjoys discovering new foods, skiing, and exploring new mountains. An intrepid traveler, she embraces opportunities for adventure, including skiing in Kashmir (the Indian Himalaya), the Republic of Georgia, and Svalbard.
What Our Guests Say
Words can not explain how fabulous Heather was. She kept our exuberant group on point and was very attentive, noticing small things we said. We all fell in love with her—she really grabbed a piece of our hearts. She was the perfect leader for our group.
Heather was a fabulous Expedition Leader! She was a wealth of information and has a passion for what she is doing, which she shared with us! This adventure was much more than I anticipated, thanks to Heather. It was the trip of a lifetime.
I have been on many expeditions in my life and we can say that Heather was the most attentive to all travelers, courteous, helpful and focused on traveler safety of all of the Expedition Leaders we have ever had with any company.