The Arctic is a specific geographical region whose environment affects any person staying and working there, so it demands research on the practice of ice navigation. The most difficult period of navigation is the winter to spring time, when Arctic seas are covered by an ice cover. Ice navigation is always associated with many difficulties for a ship’s crew, not only because of the geographical location of the water area but also because the climatic and environmental conditions impact their mental and physical state. These conditions, namely the length of the polar night and day, the extreme frosts, the maximum number of foggy days and the duration of the ice period on all the tracks of the cargo ships along the North Sea Route, were selected and analysed as the dominant factors that impact on crew members. The analysis was performed on the basis of the ‘Matrix of Arctic Impacts’, which summarizes data about the level of the selected factors in the local water areas along the North Sea Route and provides data on the local water areas with the most impacts of Arctic environment factors on the psychophysical status of crew members. In these water areas, accidents caused by the ‘human factor’ are most likely to occur. Therefore, special studies of the Arctic environment’s impact on navigators is required in order to improve the safety of ice navigation.