Trip to Seoul

Many people in Korea take a trip to Jeju, but it's a big deal for those of us that live in Jeju to get off of the island and take a trip to the mainland. I've taken two trips in the last month. The first was a three day solo motorcycle cruise, then I met up with Darren and Christine and climbed for a week. We mostly stayed in the southwestern part of Korea.

This post, however, is about my second trip. This trip was a weekend journey to Seoul for my National Ski Patrol, Outdoor Emergency Care refresher course. There's a group of patrollers, mostly military people, that patrol at the Korean ski areas. I was able to get in touch with them and take the refresher with them so I can work again this coming winter at Powder Mountain. It was a one day course, and went very well. After the course was finished, I met up with a friend, Davey for some dinner and a couch to sleep on. We had a nice Barley Bibimbap for dinner with his girlfriend and their other friends Toby and Ian.

On Sunday, I met up with some folks from the koreaontherocks.com forum. I put a post up before I left, and Kim Lee graciously answered and also kindly went through many phone calls to get me hooked up with an amazing afternoon of bouldering near Insubong in Bukhansan National Park. If you have any doubts, the climbing on the mainland is really, really fun. Korea is full of rocks, and they all are begging to be climbed. These guys have been scoping out some new bouldering areas, so I was able to witness some awesome first ascents.

This is Wayne and Bernard at the refresher about to jump into a freezing cold lake while ice fishing in Minnesota

Davey and his girlfriend showed me around, put me up, and put up with me for a night.

We started bouldering on an "easy" problem

It really wasn't too hard, but it was quite a bit taller than I'm used to. Notice that some other folks are having a picnic on top.

The mantle at the top was cool, but a little scary.

Then we went to a nice easy slab (with a dyno for the short guys)

Then we went to the hard one. Notice how overhanging it is and the virtually nonexisting feet. This picture also shows how rough the rock is. My fingertips were torn up, I literally got holes in them.

Notice the nice slopers

Kim Lee lunges for the final hold on his attempt to send it

Jason shows us how to do the final mantle. Kim Lee sent it just after I left....I think he said it's 'only' about a V6ish