Hiking Palgongsan - an introduction to Korean hiking culture

Mountains cover over 70% of Korea, finding a flat area is very challenging here – really, I can’t even find a flat route to get around the campus, there are hills literally everywhere.

It’s not without reason that hiking is Korean national sport and you can find at least three stores with outdoor equipment on every street – I’m not exaggerating. In local Home plus (Tesco), they have a huge hiking section, where you can get all kind of walking sticks, backpacks, hiking shoes, everything! Koreans just love hiking, and so do I, so I was pretty excited about the opportunity to conquer few Korean peaks!

So my second weekend in Daegu, we decided to hike the peak of Palgongsan (Mount Palgong). With a group of 10 fellow exchange students, we left our dorms at 9:00 a.m. heading to the bus stop, where we would take the direct bus to the beginning of the trail. Taking the bus, was yet another proof, that hiking is big in this country – it was full of older Koreans (50-80 years old), all of them wearing brand new, flashy hiking gear.

For me, when it comes to hiking, Norway is the paradise, with stunning scenery and barely any people, it can’t get any better. Coming to Korea I’ve obviously done my research, so I had some ideas of what to expect. I basically expected an easy, very crowded trail. And I certainly wasn’t wrong about the second part – I already knew that on the bus. But the trail itself wasn’t really that boring – it was even slightly challenging at some moments.

The first part of the hike was fairly dry and easy, after one or two hours of hiking (with several breaks to take some pictures and wait for those less experienced hikers among us) we got to the cable car top station, where we had a short break with some snacks.

The second part of the trail was quite different. It was much more muddy, melting snow must have been the reason for that – there was actually still quite a lot of snow here and there. After another 2 hours of hiking we got to the crowded peak, where we had a short break for some snack, beer and soju.

On the way back from the top, we took a different path which lead us to Donghwasa temple, where we took few pictures with huge Buddha statue in the background and soon we headed back home.

Generally, the hike was very nice, nothing spectacular but for a first Korean hike, it was nice and I feel like it was the perfect introduction to Korean hiking culture. 

Few observations from that day:

- Koreans love hiking and their overpriced pro outdoor gear. Really, it’s amazing how every single Korean hiker has everything he may possibly need to survive in mountains. Some of them actually had ropes, with some carabineers and hiking cleats – let me remind it was a fairly easy hike. And if you pass them in jeans and pair of sneakers, they will give you that look – ‘amateurs…' 

- Koreans are super kind – I’ll be writing much more about that later. Some say it’s only the case when it comes to foreigners… maybe, but still, sometimes they are just too kind. When you have some problems, they will just stop and offer help – doesn’t matter that they don’t even speak a single word in your language. They will share their food and drinks with you – doesn’t matter, they don’t know you.

- One other thing that was quite intriguing - I heard it from one of the professors at the university – very interesting person by the way, I’ll probably mention him again in the coming posts. When Koreans go hiking, their sole goal is to reach the peak, the hike itself, the scenery are not important unless you make it to the top. 

Photo credits to the whole hiking crew :)