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If you stand at almost any point in Tromsø and look east, Tromsdalstinden is the mountain you'll see. It presides over the skyline, and it looks definitive: the mountain, as if there isn't another one. In some ways there isn't; at 4,000 feet, Tromsdalstinden is the tallest mountain visible from Tromsø. I know some people who call it the city mountain.

It didn't seem like I could leave Tromsø without hiking Tromsdalstinden, but I held off in the spring because of the snow lingering at the summit. But yesterday it was sunny, so I packed a day pack with almonds and brownies and a Kvikk Lunsj bar (I should probably devote an entire post to Kvikk Lunsj, but basically, through some feat of marketing black magic, Freia has managed to transform a slightly malty Kit-Kat lookalike whose name translates as 'quick lunch' into an important provision which should be, and is, brought on every hike, skiing excursion, etc. There are even trip suggestions inside the wrappers) a water bottle and a thermos of tea (I meant to make sandwiches but my bread was moldy, which just goes to show), a sweater and a raincoat, caught my usual bus and rode it past all my usual stops and off the island to Tromsdalen, the valley that Tromsdalstinden sits at the end of (and is named for). And then I walked.
This hike is beautiful--there's really nothing else to say. You cross over the Tromsdalelva, the river that supplies the city's drinking water (if you're noticing a theme with the place names around here, you're right), and then make your way up through aspen forest until the trees melt away and there's nothing but bilberry bushes and scrub. The summit is comprised almost entirely of rock which has crumbled into rock fields. There's a hardscrabble stretch up a steep slump of rocks, but the valley below the mountain is vibrant green, and from the high ridges you can contextualize yourself within this landscape: to the south route E8 traces the crannies of countless fjords as it heads to Narvik, and west you can see past Tromsøya and Kvaløya to the open ocean, and east are the jagged peaks of the Lyngen Alps.

On the way down I stopped between two shining streams to sit and finish my thermos of tea. I have never hiked with a Norwegian who hasn't brought a thermos (usually with coffee), and I'm convinced that that's something they're doing right. Sipping a warm drink while the mountains spread around you adds just the right amount of civilization, as if this green valley could be your porch, your backyard. Norway's common access policy, Allemannsretten, literally translates as 'All Man's Right,' which means that, in a fashion, this valley is yours. So stop, pick these berries--their flavor is tart and pure. Drink this water. If you're like me, they'll be a dose of something you didn't know you needed, and you'll be better for it.