Journey to the Top of Korea

After four months living on Jeju, we finally made it out to climb Mount Halla yesterday.  We had been meaning to for quite some time but the summer was too hot, then the day we planned to go was too foggy, then we heard that the news said this weekend was the best time to see the fall colors so we figured we might as well wait and go at the best time.  There are only two trails leading all the way to the summit (and of course, we ("we" being pronounced like "Cliff") wouldn't be caught dead climbing a mountain and not actually going all the way to the top).  One of the two is supposedly the most treacherous and the other is slightly longer (less than a km though).  Cliff did some research when we first came, and true to character, thought the one rated most treacherous (Gwaneumsa) to be the most appealing option.  Lucky for us, one of our coworkers was also going with her boyfriend this weekend and he has a car which worked out great because there is no bus to Gwaneumsa trailhead.

We woke up bright and early to meet Ella and her boyfriend by 7:30 and we were on our way.  

This is us excitedly starting our journey.  Naive to the fact that we were about to hike 8.7 km up ankle rolling rock paths and of course, stairs! (okay, maybe we kind of knew what we were committing to)

The vibrant fall colors.

We hiked with Ella and her bf, PyeongSu for the first maybe half of the trail.  Then somehow we ended up losing them, never to see them again.  It may be, in part, due to the fact that about halfway up the mountain we hit the fog.  It got really foggy and rather suddenly.  Sometimes to the point where you could barely see people coming down the trail just ten feet in front of you.  On the plus side, we had already passed the deciduous part (Cliff says that's a real word) so at least we weren't missing out on the fall colors.

The picture Ella snapped before disappearing into the mist behind us. Or perhaps we disappeared into the mist ahead. Seeing as there isn't any in this picture. 

As you may have guessed by my tightened hoodie strings and highly obstructed peripheral vision, the heightened altitude also brought lowering temperatures.  The higher we got, the colder it got.  And it was windy.  There was tons of condensation on all the trees from the fog and when the wind blew hard, it basically rained from the trees.  It was weird because it really seemed like it would rain for just a few feet every once in a while.  Then it got colder, and that condensation on all the trees, was ice. And that would fall on you too.  It went from quite pleasant cool fall sweater weather at the bottom of the mountain, to a winter wonderland towards the top.

Cliff posing in his t-shirt in front of the frosty trees.

Eventually, yet in record breaking time (according to the travel website's 5 hour estimate and some foreigners blog that said you could make it in 4 hours if you were "tanking it") we made it to the top in only 3.5 hours time.  It was so windy I thought I was going to get blown off the ice covered boardwalk. And cold enough, that we didn't want to bask in our glory for too long.

The icy, windy boardwalk at the edge of the caldera.

Celebrating our victory with some peperos.

The view into the caldera.  Yes, this is where on a clearer day we may someday view the crater lake at the bottom.

  Then we promptly started the 8.7 km back down.  Which proved to be even more treacherous than going up. Plus, there were still a lot of people coming up the trail which made it hard to get around the slow folks. As we started our journey down, we passed a korean girl who we had apparently passed on the way up and she looked at us and longingly said "You're so fast."
We also passed the lovely Jehovah's witness (who had given Cliff a pamphlet when we passed him on our way up) still on his way up.  Only I didn't remember it was him and so when he saw me slip a little on some slick rocks and said in Korean "try and read, right away!" I thought to myself, "what, he just saw me slip a tiny bit and now thinks I can't read?" Then I realized he was the same guy and there was the implied subject of the pamphlet.
We enjoyed some of the sights and colors again on our way down.  In between getting our joints pounded, almost twisting our ankles or slipping every step and trying to act like our legs didn't shake if we stopped walking for a second.

Some pools reflecting the leaves. 

When we got down, Ella and PyeongSu were waiting for us in the car (they decided not to go all the way to the top because of the weather) and we headed home.
It was a really great day and a really great trip.  The hiking was a lot better than I thought it would be considering how little energy I seem to have these days, but I had no problems at all and we didn't even have to stop and rest more than one time to get a quick snack.  The colors were beautiful and it was a really fun day.  We're just hoping that next time we can get a view inside the caldera.  I guess that means come spring, we will be at it again.
But for now, we can officially say that we have climbed the highest mountain in South Korea.