 Unlike the jagged and forbidding appearance of most fjord systems in East Greenland, the Umivik area has a relatively gentle shape.Here the massive Greenland ice sheet comes down to the shore in smooth, even undulations and the landscape looks unbroken, with only few glimpses of bare rock.Owing to this smoothness, Umivik Bay was chosen as launching point for westward overland crossings, including the pioneering 1888 Greenland venture by Fridtjof Nansen.