The Monster

There has been this lingering demon in my head since about a year ago. My friend and I had made it to 설악산 (Seoraksan) National Park in South Korea, and we were trying to figure out the best hiking that we could get in when we ran into a Canadian girl who said she had done this loop in about eight hours. It was the only loop trail, because the trail everybody traditionally took was straight up 대청봉 (Daecheongbong) and then came back the same way. My friend and I are anything but traditional. What we did, however, fail to take into account is that this young female was born and raised in the mountains, spent every weekend in Korea at another national park climbing as many mountains as she could. My friend and I spent every weekend getting sauced and climbing very low hills if we did anything—another longish story. At any rate, that climb took us (precisely as the KPS times told us it would) around 12 hours. It hurt so bad it is almost incomprehensible to think about. There aren’t even any Koreans who are crazy enough to do that. They stay in a hut about halfway through (well, it’s more like two-thirds of the way through).
I have this mildly sadistic challenge streak inside me, and I wanted to know if it could be done better, faster, and with less ache. I trained. I went back. These are the notes I took:
I had intended, during the course of my hike yesterday, to keep notes and give an accurate description as possible to what one encounters on what I call “The Monster.” What follows is basically an hour-by-hour transcript of the bastard.
Some words of advice: realize that this route is VERY dry. At the top of the mountain—for basically six hours—there is no potable water. In other words: BRING WATER… lots of it, because, like I said: dry, arid, and painful at the top. Second piece of advice: it is twelve hours, and you’ll need plenty of food. You’ll need a fair bit because you’ll need hourly snacks and something significant every four hours or so. Third, do something to train beforehand. It will help, even though you’ll still definitely feel it. Fourth, invest in some proper hiking apparel because attempting this route in jean shorts and t-shirts WILL result in very uncomfortable rashes—in places you might not imagine.
Okay, the first hour takes you through 소공원 (So Gong-won)—the park at the base of the mountains). The entrance fee, as of 2010, is a staggering 2500 원—the equivalent of about two dollars. The park itself is nice. There’s a tourist motel inside of it. As of this year, there is a bunch of trees whose claim to fame is that there has been a restaurant under its shade for 200 years. There’s a garden. There’s a giant statue of Buddha. You can take a cable car—but get there early for this as it fills up extraordinarily quickly. There’s a trail to a waterfall.
Your trail rambles past all of this and past a couple of restaurants deeper in the woods. Finally, you come to 비선대 (Biseondae)—a rock, a restaurant, and the crossroads. The trail to 대청봉 (the previously mentioned peak) is to the left. It’s 10.8km away and the backwards version of what I’m describing. To the right is about 10 minutes of moderate incline. At this point, the 1st hour is over and you can choose to go see the monk who lives in a cave on the side of the mountain (to the right) or continue up the trail to the left. The main advantage of the cave is that it affords one of the greatest views of 설악 (Seorak) Valley, and the main disadvantage is that it adds about 30 minutes or an hour to your ordeal. Understand that from this point, the next three hours are essentially ascension. There are brief respites here and there, but for the most part you must keep in mind that you’re going up a mountain in Korea, and what better way than to throw down millions of stone stairs and walk straight up that fucker.
Anyway I should make a couple of important points. The 2nd hour (as in the hour moving away from the cave) is probably the hardest. It just keeps going up. In the third hour it is possible to get some spring water, but ONLY if it has rained recently. If you’re desperate, there’s usually a trickle you can get something out of. The fourth hour has a more reliable spring, although still touch and go if it hasn’t rained recently. It also begins to let you know what the KNPS classifies this particular (ahem… 2-day) hike as a hike/scramble. It’s dry and rocky at the top, which means that you’ll be doing some “scrambling” over bits of mountain.
Take a break and assess yourself. Get a bit to eat, because after four hours you’ll be at 마등령 (madeungneung). The KNPS says its 1327m. If you’re fatigued, just turn around and walk the three hours out. Seven hours is already a helluva long hiking day and there is nothing to be ashamed of in it. If you feel up for it, just keep to the trail at the left. The next five hours are a great mix—and by great I don’t always mean good. Essentially, what you need to keep in mind is that you are walking along the ridge of the mountains. This means two things (at least): fantastic views, vistas, and geological features; and walking over mountains that range from 1300m to 1200m. In other words: in order to get from view to vista to geological wonder you will have to do steady alternation between ascending and descending, sometimes significantly. After a steady descent of 20 or 30 minutes, you’ll find the corresponding ascent just around a corner. Three hours of this (after the previous four hours of steady ascent) has the tendency to make a body tired. So, the last two hours are psychological hell. There is a long descent at the end of the third hour, and you start to believe that you are going down in earnest. You start to feel relieved. You start to breathe easier. You start believing: that wasn’t so bad. Then, you turn a corner and start going up. “What sadistic bastard put this here,” you think, “but, oh well.” The you turn another corner and you’re still going up. You turn a third corner and you see an almost sheer scramble that terminates youknownotwhere: MERDE!! The main advantage you have no is “having come this far.” Either way is four hours—maybe six if you turn around—and it’s best to just press on. A little hint: baby steps are fine, and the knees prefer them to having to pull the body weight long distances.
So, you take another forty minutes of ascent in stride (as it were) and realize your situation. It hurt psychologically and physically, but you’re heading back down now and everything is going to be fine of course. Not on your life. You got more ascent yet to come. Essentially it is only the last 30 minutes of this five-hour section of hiking which are pure descent. 희운각 hut awaits the weary traveler with foresight enough to make a reservation. Otherwise, you head to the right and three hours of walking down steps made of stone or metal. A recommended 2-day hike is what I have just described, mated with a stay at the hut, then an ascent of Daechoengbong the next day.
However, since that’s not what we have decided to do, I recommend that you take this ambling, non-strenuous section of the hike—which follows a river all the way back to the park—is: take your time. If it gets to be after 6 or 7 and you’re near the rock that was crossroads, take the opportunity, break the rules, and jump into the crystal clear river. It’s cold, clear and perfect for a body aching from (by now) 10 hours or so of hiking. At the very least, find a place to put your feet in.
The most enjoyable part of this section of the hike is watching the river trip and fall and create pools that look delicious bare are made inaccessible by… factors. After 2-3 hours of river-watching and steady heading down off the mountains, you make it back to the rock. Keep in mind that you still have a one-hour walk to the park gate, but after what you’ve been through, it’s like a walk… in… the park. The beauty of 설악산 is its relative closeness to society (Koreans would have it no other way). If you’re staying in a motel, you can just stop at a restaurant on your way back. If you’re camping, you can pick up some beer, soju, or (and) maggeulli and spend the evening—which will be very short—over a couple of drinks and grub. Sleep will be easy to come by.
Either way, the images your brain will be processing at the end of the day will be: mountains in the distance, sparsely populated with foliage, that look like great bowls of ice cream topped with chocolate syrup; three and four level waterfalls emptying into deep pools; vast expanses of mountain range that seem to dance waltzes with the imagination; never-ending trails of rock stairs that have been conquered; scrambles over treacherous mountain-adz tops that you realized would have maimed you had you slipped; and finally, what is possible for humans to do in a day.