So we went to Seoraksan national park last weekend and it was a blast. We got to climb 2 and a quarter days in a row. The quarter counts because I did one climb on Sunday morning. It was a really fun climb so I count it. The first day was by far the best though. We did a multi-pitch route that I don't know the name of. It was very fun, a little bit scary, and a little bit hairy sometimes too (read: potential for long falls, climbing through trees, etc.). Here are some pictures to help describe our experience.
We got to the park on Friday morning, nervous that we wouldn't be able to camp, but still with enough hope that we carried a large styrofoam cooler up the 1 mile hike with us on the trail. We didn't really have a choice because it had all our dinner in it for the second night. Our friends Mark and Jenny had been there once before so we had no trouble finding the good camp site. And let me emphasize good because this ended up being the first time we have gone camping in Korea and not either been woken up by a late night train coming through at 5am or some shouting Koreans drunk on Soju nearby. This place was perfect. It was so dark at night that my eyes never adjusted to it. There was a stream of cold water running near that we used to keep things cool and to drink from (eventually when we ran out of water).
So once we unpacked on Friday and got setup to climb, we hiked up a hundred meters and were there. The weather was a crisp 75 degrees in the sun with a breeze. Perfect climbing weather. We got started late in the morning, going up 4 pitches to about 300+ feet/100 meters, topping out a few minutes behind our friends who had been on the climb next to us. The climbing itself had been amazing, all different styles, a mix of traditional style and sport bolts. This was fun because I don't usually climb much where I have to place gear. But there were 20-30 foot run outs between bolts, so it was necessary.
Rebs struggled a little bit with the height of it all, feeling very elevated and exposed while belaying on the rock. Before this time, we had only done up to 3 pitches of multi-pitch climbing, so this was a big step for her. But she managed to keep breathing and we made it to the top together. It was such an accomplishing feeling to have done it with her. It made me really proud of her. I told her that her "hot factor" went up that day because she became a serious multi-pitch climber.
We finished late in the afternoon, around 5pm, and headed down to our campsite. We were starving and dehydrated because we hadn't brought any water or food with us on the climb. So we snacked, then made a campfire (also our first in Korea) and had dinner. We had some great, sincere conversations around the fire for a couple hours, killing time until we decided it was late enough to go to bed. We were exhausted and I slept like a baby.
There's more, but that's enough of a story for now. So if you rock climb, and you ever make it to Korea, you should definitely consider climbing in Seoraksan.
