Northeast Passage

Across the Russian Arctic, a consortium of companies supported by the government is midway through a plan to invest 735 billion rubles, or about $10 billion, over five years developing the Northeast Passage, a shipping lane between the Pacific and Atlantic that the Russians call the Northern Sea Route.

There are geopolitical dimensions to the opening of Arctic sea routes as Russia, with its much larger icebreaker fleet, has looked to a northeast passage as it opens a route to move cargo from the Atlantic to Asia.

In the ultralight, performance trike I had rented from a shop called Northeast Passage in Durham, N.H.,

Fatland opens her book by describing a voyage along the Arctic coast of Russia, the once-ice-bound Northeast Passage now increasingly littered with rusting oil drums and other trash.

Barents’s expedition was seeking a northeast passage from Europe to Asia, without having to travel around Africa.