Saturday, after a morning spent superficially studying with an undeserved hangover, I left Gumi with a group of climbers I go to the gym with. It took three hours to get to Seonoonsan, a provincial park in Jeolla province on the west side of the country. We arrived, set up camp and immmediately set in on dinner. Those who'd left the day before returned from the rocks just as Junsu arrived with the makkoli. Yum, camping with rice wine, fatty fried pork, some pig intestine soup--nothing says living like such a situation. There was even a kind man in a truck, patrolling the area keeping us safe by keeping the local mosquito population in check. You could hear his truck coming, the motor pumping out an impenetrable cloud of poison that trailed behind. In case any of the winged pests might have lived past his first pass--they did--he circled around a couple of times.

After that, the mosquitoes seemed to want revenge. A perimeter of mosquito coils, citronella patches on our clothes and numerous baths of repellent hardly deterred them. Hakseok and Junsu's use of epeu killa, something that looked terribly noxiousm, prompted jokes about epeu killa showers and the like. Hakseok slept outside in a bivy prone to the whims of the beasts. In the morning I left my tent to find him sleeping with the aerosol can of bug spray under his head. His feet took the brunt of the damage, with over ten bites below the ankles.

The older members of the group said it was time to go to bed around 1130, no more drinking, because we had to get up at 6 to eat breakfast and get on the trail. Not tired, I assented. There was no booze or water left to drink.

Atypical of me, I woke at 530, unable to sleep longer and feeling ready. The rest were rather hung, actually trying to stay in the tents was they were struck. A breakfast of rice and we were on trail.



We took the back way into the park, using a right of way on an old couple's green tea farm to avoid paying the entrance fee. I like these guys more and more.

We stopped by a lake before the final km to the rocks.

In the back from left to right: Mike, the only other foreign climber in Gumi, JeongSun, and Hakseok In the front: Bongjun, me, Minho, Jun, and Jaehan. Junsu took the picture.



Mike showing impeccable sartorial sense as he makes his first ascent of the day. Jeongsun kept pointing at him and saying fashion, and giggling. I couldn't tell whether or not this was a good thing.

Bongjun was too hungover for most of the day to climb; he spent most of the time belaying, sleeping or grimmacing.



Mike displays his lack of camera skills, thereby minimizing the visibility of my lack of climbing skills. Can you see it?




Mike starts off "Zoo," my first attempted 5.12a. We both made it a little more than halfway to a tough move where you look up only see more rock above your head. Did wonders to destroy the roll I was on.


Me just starting out Zoo.




Hakseok, a far better climber, just below halfway on Zoo. He got just below the final bolt



and fell. He had drunkenly told me the night before that it was his project for the day.




Gladiator's Helmet Rock, above the other faces, had a bunch of routes too difficult for most of the climbers there, so it was nice and peaceful with only the droning of the cicadas.

Down below, the Konglish cheer fighting! was too prevalent for peace. When I explained I had never heard it in the States, they were a little surprised. I suggested a more authentically American cheer. For the next hour a barely recognizable "gitterdone!" prevailed.