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These two hills are on the Malangen peninsula to the south of Tromsø, most easily (if not cheaply!) reached from the city via a toll tunnel from Kvaløya. The route starts at a large gravel parking area, and takes a track for a mile or so leading to some waterworks. Here you need to cross the river, but the footbridge is lying uselessly on one bank! Thankfully the water levels were very low and it was easy to cross - there may be an alternative path from the road, on the south side of the river. Like the
previous day, it was very hot and windless, and progress was extremely slow! A good (if rather over-enthusiatically waymarked) path winds up through birch trees and emerges onto the shoulder of the hill. From here it is a steady climb, still on a good path, past a prominent cairn. Higher up the path fades out, but the going is on nice short grass and small stones. We were very glad to find a small stream, and then a tiny snow patch which helped cool us down!
The summit of Vågtinden is finely placed overlooking a trio of high lakes, and we lazed around a bit before heading along a lovely stretch of ridge, with some easy scrambling, to the slightly higher top of Stortinden. We had thought about continuing to Breifjellet, but it looked a bit of a choss-heap, and we did not fancy hot fly-ridden pathless thrashing back through the woods at the bottom, so we went back down the same way.
Online mapLooking across Balsfjord - Tromsø city at the far left,
Tromsdaltinden in the centre
South-east across Balsfjord
The Ytterskaret valley
Stortinden and Breifjellet
Bentsjordtinden
Slettinden
Balsfjord - Piggtinden and Storvasstinden in the distance
Stunning blue lake
...and a clear green one
Vågtinden from Stortinden