Ice Climb
After a long tiring week and all I wanted to do is sleep, I got up at the buttcrack of still-dark dawn to drive to this place
We got there about 9a and got some breakfast, which was to my horror was Soondae Gukbap, sortof a Korean sausage soup with rice. Soondae is intestines stuffed with rice noodles and other stuff. It smells a little off and doesn't really taste like sausage. I've never liked it, trying it a little at a time when Koreans order it, but not wanting a second bite. This time I liked it. There was other meat in the soup and I finished off the soondae without eating it.
Then we got to climbing. It took a while to set up the anchors up top, and after that the dudes with equipment climbed until they wanted a break.
My turn.
Nice Goofy smile there. Moments later I got smacked in the head with a falling chunk of ice. It took some getting used to the crampons and the ice axes. I was gripping the axes so hard that by the time I was near the difficult section at the top I'd lost feeling in my fingers. I had to turn around, but didn't feel so bad--another guy got to a little above me and came down. When he passed me he said "fighting!" a now well used cheer in Korea.
I took a little walk in the frozen river and watched the cracks form beneath me.
then ate lunch where Choei fed me more Soju and told me it was good for men. He fed me a lot of it. Then magically some sort of a ceremony started. A bunch of guys in suits were there and speeches were made and this one person climbed up alone after the national anthem played
The party broke up immediately. I crossed the river to climb again and when I looked back, the tents and guys in suits were gone.
The booze must have been good for men because after lunch I went out and climbed up twice rather easily. I adjusted to the fact that I really could put a lot of weight on just a toe hold or a meager point in the ice. The crampons were sharp enough that they punched a hole in my snow pants rather easily, too.
The guys asked if I wanted to go again the next day, and I did, though laziness got laziness got the best of me. Faced with a choice of waiting hours in the cold to get a climb or two in, or sleeping in, eating pizza for breakfast and sitting in a sauna for a good part of the day . . . I hope they go again when I'm not so tired.
We got there about 9a and got some breakfast, which was to my horror was Soondae Gukbap, sortof a Korean sausage soup with rice. Soondae is intestines stuffed with rice noodles and other stuff. It smells a little off and doesn't really taste like sausage. I've never liked it, trying it a little at a time when Koreans order it, but not wanting a second bite. This time I liked it. There was other meat in the soup and I finished off the soondae without eating it.
Then we got to climbing. It took a while to set up the anchors up top, and after that the dudes with equipment climbed until they wanted a break.
My turn.
Nice Goofy smile there. Moments later I got smacked in the head with a falling chunk of ice. It took some getting used to the crampons and the ice axes. I was gripping the axes so hard that by the time I was near the difficult section at the top I'd lost feeling in my fingers. I had to turn around, but didn't feel so bad--another guy got to a little above me and came down. When he passed me he said "fighting!" a now well used cheer in Korea.
I took a little walk in the frozen river and watched the cracks form beneath me.
then ate lunch where Choei fed me more Soju and told me it was good for men. He fed me a lot of it. Then magically some sort of a ceremony started. A bunch of guys in suits were there and speeches were made and this one person climbed up alone after the national anthem played
The party broke up immediately. I crossed the river to climb again and when I looked back, the tents and guys in suits were gone.
The booze must have been good for men because after lunch I went out and climbed up twice rather easily. I adjusted to the fact that I really could put a lot of weight on just a toe hold or a meager point in the ice. The crampons were sharp enough that they punched a hole in my snow pants rather easily, too.
The guys asked if I wanted to go again the next day, and I did, though laziness got laziness got the best of me. Faced with a choice of waiting hours in the cold to get a climb or two in, or sleeping in, eating pizza for breakfast and sitting in a sauna for a good part of the day . . . I hope they go again when I'm not so tired.
posted by The Principal at 2:32 PM
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