Jeju Island: Day 3

Day 3: The Hike…

If I could describe myself in one word, athletic would not be that word. Not to say I’m out of shape (though I could use a few sit-ups…and maybe a diet…), but I’m not the world’s most athletic creature. While I’m not athletic, I still love hiking, as does my friend who accompanied me to Jeju. This lead to the spectacular decision to hike up Hallsan Mountain. Did I mention that Hallsan is the tallest mountain in Korea? Or that my friend and I have just about zero mountain climbing experience? Yeah…

Now this is not to say it’s like scaling Everest, but for those who are not physically fit or experienced hikers, getting to the peak of Hallsan will be impossible. How do I know this? Gather around dear children, it’s story time.

Hallsan Mountain (할산)

My friend and I woke up early, 6:00 AM, to get to Hallsan at 8. My friend and I prepared the best we could, lots of water, chocolate (for energy), trail mix, and beef jerky. The purpose of starting our hike at 8:00 AM was to get to the half-way point of Hallsan by 1:00 PM. If you don’t make it by 1 PM, you’re asked to turn around because you won’t be able to make to the peak and back before dark (this time varies depending on the time of year).

While we got to the park at 8, our actual hike didn’t actually begin until about 8:30-9:00. The first hour of our hike was easy albeit a little rocky. The path was literally rocky. As someone who suffers an acute case of clumsiness, this was a death sentence. While we were fast-paced to get to the half-way point by one, we were trying to go slow so that I wouldn’t break an ankle…or kill myself.

I should mention that this part of the hike was quite beautiful.

Hour two is where things started to get bad. You see, it was supposed to be the “easy” section of the hike. Yet climbing rocks at about a 20% incline is pretty difficult, especially for the athletically uninclined. By hour two, I was officially out of breath. My companion said he wasn’t (liar).

More pictures!

 Caterpillars are fun!

Hour 3 hits, and we have now officially reached the 1/3^rd point the trail…as well as the end of the “easy portion”. My friend and I took a breather, ate a little, drank a little, and proceeded to the “medium” part of the journey. Medium, yeah right. If stairs at a 60% incline that go up for stories at a time is considered medium, than yeah, I’m really out of shape…

 It is after about 30 minutes of this stair walking where I finally quite. We sit on the stairs, and I quietly contemplate my defeat (aka cry wo-manly tears of exhaustion). We managed to even snap pictures of our (my) exhaustion faces.

I'm sexy and I know it

The worst part of this moment of weakness was to see all the ajumas and ajushis pass us, allof whom seemed barely phased by the intense climb. That really takes a chip out of your pride.

I admitted to my friend that I could take no more, and we began to make our way down the mountain. Once we made our way down the mountain (an additional hour and a half hike), my friend finally admits that he too is exhausted.

We then eat our lunch while looking at the mountain that defeated us. We then made a promise that we would come back to Hallsan one day and defeat it (not to mention show up those ajuma and ajushis that we are not two out of shape 20-somethings)!

TL;DR Only hike Hallsan with the intent to get to the top only if you are an experienced hiker. If you are not, you will be met with crushing defeat.