I climbed Seoraksan with some friends yesterday. Seoraksan translates to "Dinosaur Mountain." I don't know what fascination Koreans seem to have with dinosaurs, but I like it.
We got up at 3:20 AM, and we were at the base of the mountain by 4:30 AM. We were in darkness for the first couple hours of the hike. We were just reaching the first peak by the time the sun rose (around 7 AM).
It started raining - not very hard, but enough to make the ground wet. I was wearing my five finger shoes, which were not perfect for the weather. They don't really have any traction. When we reached the next big peak at around 11, it started snowing. It was the first snowfall in South Korea this year, but it was hard to appreciate this at the time. I was wearing only two shirts, and they were soaked through. At this time, our party of five split up. I went back down the mountain with two others, while the other two went on the longer trail.
I slipped at the top of a metal staircase, and fell forward down three stairs, but the mountain gods were with me, because I caught myself without getting hurt. We finally got down at around 1 PM, and the other two got back at around 3:30. It was the stupidest, and coolest thing I've done here.
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