Since I’ve already discussed motels a bit, here are pictures to continue exemplifying the cheesiness.
I sat down on the bed, only to become slightly motion sick. I thought omg, is this a WATERBED!!?? But, it was a "water-pad" or some gel like substance. Very strange.
And again, spray paint stenciled wall mural..I have no comment.
Let me just say that I am really glad I decided to do the whole get to my next destination the night before thing because on this particular morning, I was going to attack Chiak-san. Now, I had NO idea what I was in for with this mountain.
Chiak actually means toothpaste, but in this situation it’s referring to teeth. The mountain that I climbed today was named Chiak-san because of it’s jagged tooth-like silhouette – although one cannot tell that it’s all jagged, tooth-like from the base of the mountain.
It took me approx 7.5 hours to complete this hike. I almost ran out of daylight. This mountain was no joke of a mountain. Remember I had my like 35 pound bag on my back climbing (yes more like climbing rather than hiking) this thing.
These stairs was my first taste of what was to come. At this point, there was decision to be made. Two directions leading to the same point – one was 2.7 kilometers, the other 2.8 kilometers. The 2.8 km route looked more flat and therefore was the reason it was longer; I opted for the shorter but steeper looking route thinking, how bad could it possibly be?
Yea this was the 2.7 km choice... UP these stairs... no joke I tell you. No joke.
Well let me tell you…this last picture I took of the stairs, was actually AFTER I had finished my climb. This mountain was so narrow, so steep, and so unending that I could only take pictures on my way down the mountain on the other side; and it was only after I had made it like halfway down. Why? Because on my way up, I realized that I was walking along the ridge of the mountain the entire way. As you climbed up, you could see the top, but not the real top. Once you thought you had gotten to the top, you would just walk a little further along the flat ridge only to be confronted with yet another steep climb.
The situation was so precarious that if I literally made a wrong step, grabbed the wrong rock, mis-gripped a rope, miscalculated my center of gravity with the bag on my back, I would stumble and fall to my death – either falling backwards or to any side. There is no exaggeration about this mountain.
On my way up at the beginning, I met these three people. A father, his son, and the uncle of the son. It was quickly discovered that the three of them and I were scaling at about the same rate, even with my bag on my back. If I had not met them, I think it would’ve taken me even longer to get up and down this mountain.
The ahjusshis (collective for the father and uncle, not the son) were very nice and helpful. Each of them carried my bag about a half an hour a piece before each got wore down from the weight (lol). The son declined on offering to attempt to carry it. It seems the son is a bit weak in mental spirit and perhaps physicality. He’s I think like 17 (dropped out of high school it seems) and his father the entire time kept yelling at him; things like “inuhmun sehkie, bah-lee wah!” (loosely translated as, good for nothing bastard, hurry the f-up. The word sehkie is a very strange word to me. I have a hard time understanding it. It’s supposedly a really bad word; it’s kind of like the word bitch I think, and is often used as such. However, growing up I distinctly remember my mother using that word in reference to me, but with affection. So, I always thought it was a word used to show affection – not well… the opposite. It’s quite the conundrum for me as I am constantly told that it’s not a good word. I used it once with someone I was trying to show platonic affection for and she flipped out on me…I have been careful about using it since.
Ok, back to story; so the father kept shouting rather discouraging words towards his son to hurry up as well as comparing his son to me – a female, half his size, carrying a huge flipping bag, but covering ground faster than him.
The top part of the mountain was very icy. My boots don’t have good grip on the bottom for icy or slippery surfaces, so you can imagine, after what I’ve already mentioned with my bag and all, how this was yet another challenge for me. Not only do I have to try and not fall off the mountain, the danger escalates as I now have to factor in not slipping to my death along with everything else. However, at this point, there is no way I am turning back and going down the direction I came – yes that steep, bag is that heavy, and ridge is that narrow. I am praying that the other side is easier to go down.
After around 4.5 hours or something like that, the 4 of us make it to the top, where you can’t see anything (see photo below) because we are high up enough to be hitting some clouds (I assume clouds as opposed to fog). I share my bread and peanut butter, while they share their gim-bap (Korean seaweed wrapped rolled rice – looks like sushi but there’s no fish, just veggies and stuff). After eating some lunch, we head down the other side.
The father ahjusshi offered me his ihztens (sp?); basically chains for my shoes to grip the ice on the way down. This proved to be very valuable in my descent. If I did not have the ihztens, it would’ve taken me hours longer as I would’ve had to have been much more cautious about each step I took with the bag on my back.
Going down was indeed much easier and swifter; although I am skeptical as to what it would be like climbing up this side. I think I will stick with the preference of going up the way I did and coming down the way I did. This side had much more snow as opposed to ice and the path was wider as this was going down the side of the mountain and not trekking along the ridges.
The three of us (minus the son) made it down efficiently. The son was behind us about 45 minutes. We actually drove to pick him up. The ahjusshis after the descent, were nice enough to give me a ride to the bus terminal as waiting for the bus to go back to the terminal was proving to be tricky with the time because it was late (like 6:30pm nearing 7 maybe) and the last bus was at 8.
I grabbed the last bus to Chungju to hit up mountain #4 (in 4 days) the next day and find my place to rest for the night.
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