Lunar New Year

"Lunar New Year"

(sung to the tune of The Mamas & The Papas)

     Lunar New Year.  A such important holiday for the Koreans to celebrate.  The custom in Korea during Lunar New Year is for everyone to leave town and visit their families, taking a day or so off of work to do such.  Kelly and I used it as an excellent excuse to do something fun with our 3-day weekend.  There is an organization in Korea called Adventure Korea, and it caters to the foreign crowd here in Korea.  Adventure Korea offers many trips around Korea doing special, unique trips such as the Lunar New Year Ski Trip.  Because everyone is visiting their families, ski resorts such as Pheonix Park is not as populated (although still very busy in Korea standards) as most weekends. 

This ski trip was my very first time skiing, and Kelly's second.  Regardless, we went into the slopes for the first time not knowing what to do or how to do it.  Kelly and I picked it up very fast and the trip turned out very fun.  We skiied from 12:30-4:30pm and 6:30-9:30pm on Saturday, and from 8:30am-4:30pm on Sunday.  So we skiied for about 15 total hours.  Towards the end of the ski trip we got very good.  I attempted a few green squares and one of the slopes I went on was actually part of a black diamond.  The max slope I went on was 25 degrees.  It's hard not to be a little proud when I was able to do a semi-real black diamond. 

This was just before my green square/black diamond run.  I only fell one time after going down this slope 4 times!

I didn't really know what to expect from the mountains in Korea.  I was unaware of the mountain range being in Seoul since we are only able to see a little bit.  Pheonix Park is about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride out of Seoul.  When we arrived at the resort I was surprised to see the beautiful mountains.  My best comparison of these mountains would be the Appalachian Mountains?  They were pretty tall.  Regardless, the slopes were much higher and steeper than Minnesota.  After talking with other foreigners, from what I understand, the rating system of slopes in ski resorts are very inconsistent.  A black diamond in Minnesota could be similar to some beginner/intermediate slopes at Pheonix Park.  Some of the runs were pretty long.  There was a gondola at this ski resort that took you to the top of the mountain.  It was about an 11 minute ride and it was almost twice as fast as the normal chair lift. 

For lodging we stayed at a youth hostel.  As you can see the rooms were bunkbeds and housed 8 people.  We met some really cool people during this trip and shared a room with them.  You could walk outside of the hostel and be within 100 feet of some chair lifts.  Our window overlooked the slopes.  We were able to see some sweet tricks in the extreme park (half pipe, grind rails, etc.).

Our hostel group.

In conclusion, Kelly and I shredded some serious gnar.  I was happy to spit some powder from my skis once in a while.  I think Kelly and I fell less than 15 times between the two of us during 15 hours of ski time.  We cannot wait to get home, buy some skis for ourselves, and hit up the gnar again.  More pictures of the ski trip are on our Picasa Web Album.  Feel free to check them out.