Hiking in Seoraksan at 3AM

So yeah, a couple of firsts for me this last Friday night/Saturday; I went hiking at 3AM in Seoraksan, and I hiked for over 10 hours, staying awake since Friday morning till Saturday night with maybe an hour or two in the middle.

So my adventure began at 10pm, when I met up with my Korean hiking buddy, Brian (his English name) at the Sadang subway station, in South Seoul, about 30 minutes away from where I live. I met him and three of his friends as we joined a hiking club bus chartered for Seoraksan. We arrived around 2:30am to our departure point and started soon thereafter. I hadn't slept hardly at all, but was soon woken up by the brisk, chilly weather at Seoraksan.

A spooky pic of me around 3am, with my flashlight

At first I thought to myself "hey, this isn't too bad, not cold at all." but of course, I had forgotten we had come to hike up a mountain, which means we would be rapidly (and by rapidly I mean *really* quick) up on one of the highest mountains in South Korea (about 1700 meters).

Not so spooky, with flash

It soon got really cold, even though we were all sweating because of the incessant climb up the trail. Not only was it getting colder and colder, but it was a pretty slippery path, as it seemed it had either rained or was foggy enough for there to be water and mud around the trail at numerous areas.

Hiking buddies going up the trail
Me again, with my hood on

Around five or so (yes, in the morning), I noticed there were very, very light snowflakes falling around me, which didn't really add up to anything, but it was a very beautiful and dramatic touch to the surreal experience in the foggy ascent up the trail to the mountain peak, Daecheonbong.

Can you see me?

As we climbed on, I noticed that there wasn't so much slippery water and mud patches. "Great, no more slippery mud patches!" but, unfortunately, this was replaced by a more fearsome foe: snow and ice! The ice patches in particular could be quite tricky, especially without one of the widely used hiking poles that 99% of Korean hikers use and that, up to this point, I had never had a use for. I highly regretted not having one during this trip.

Icy Trail

After numerous hours, as we made painstakingly slow progress up towards the peak, the sun finally started rising among the amazing surroundings, and up through the clouds. It was amazing to witness as the night started dying away and the sun changed the colors from dark black to light blue to warm orange.

The sun peaking out

Going up the slippery trail

I was soon stunned by the amazing views that the sun was allowing in the early morning, such as "sea of clouds," as the Koreans aptly call the immense expanse of clouds that surrounded us and other peaks in Seoraksan.

The Sea of Clouds

I'm sure I drove my Korean friends pretty nuts with all of the pictures I took but I just couldn't help it. I was honestly blown away with the views, and couldn't stop saying "wow" just throughout the sunrise and hike up the mountain.

Some various shots nearing the peak

After reaching the peak, we descended to a shelter, which was *so* nice, as it had a heated interior filled with Korean hikers, where we rested for an hour and a half or so, and had some noodles, which they graciously cooked for me. Just as a side note/picture, here's a shot of my *frozen* brown sugar... just to give you an idea of how chilly it was.

To give you a more accurate idea of how freezing it was, the digital thermometer at the hiker's lodge when we got there read -4 degrees celsius... that's without wind chill factor, and with the sun already fully out.

A View of the peak, later that morning

And some of the surrounding peaks within Seoraksan,
by which we would hike that day

Then came the descent towards the other side of the mountain and park. "Easy!" was my first thought, since it meant we got to effortlessly go down the mountain, rather than grudgingly climb up it. Boy was I wrong.



The descent was *very* very slippery; so much so, that one of the more experienced hikers among us gave me these cool metal spiked clip-ons for my shoes which vastly improved my traction and descent through the ice-packed trails.


Also, since we had rested, it seemed, far too long at the lodge, we had to go through the last four or five miles at breakneck speed. My knees promptly let me know that they weren't happy at all. My toes and foot soles soon joined in the outcry of pain too. But it was fun :).


And here's a big batch of pictures that I took during our speed hiking through the last few hours of the trip. At this point, I'm now too lazy to post captions for each one, so be creative, and come up with your own. ;)





























And here I am, revisiting the main entrance to the park, through which we exited, and the buddah statue made of bronze, which according to Brian is the largest in all Asia?

And a *really* bad shot taken by one of the hikers of me, revisiting the bear statue near the entrance, with the poor bear's head chopped off! What's the deal!?


All in all, it was an amazing, surreal experience, which tested my physical ability to beyond my limits, I'm sure. I'm glad I was able to do it, and I'm glad I'm back in my comfy, warm apartment to recuperate. :)

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