New Year's in Jirisan

Our last school break for some time, Lunar New Year's, was 2 days at the end of January. We figured this might be our only chance to hike the whole ridge in Jirisan National Park. Jirisan (지리산) is close to Jinju and straddles 2 provinces. It has Korea's third highest mountain, Cheonhwangbong, which is 6,283'. The ridge has about a dozen different shelters which you can reserve online (in English!) and you have to stay in them, no tent camping allowed. We had been to the Hwaemsa temple and the park entrance before and the weather was mild and the ridge was free of snow. So for our vacation we made reservations in 3 different shelters and imagined a leisurely stroll along a flat ridge, basking in the winter sun. We did not prepare for snow, and Kevin was even wearing jeans, one of his few pair of pants. We did not pack much cold weather clothing (as we don't have much period). The plan was to wake up early Saturday morning and bus to Hadong, then Gurye, the the Hwaesma temple entrance. As we had just worked 3 long weeks, along with hapkido classes, Saturday we slept in late and contemplated not even going. Let's just be lazy in Jinju all weekend. But once up and out of bed the antsiness kicked in and we packed. We didn't leave our apartment until 1pm, so I figured there was no way we would make it to the park before sunset. I was adamant about not hiking at night. I pictured hopping from huge slippery boulders and that, coupled with my crappy headlamp and general woosiness, led me to believe we would just stay in a motel at the base of the mountain and hike extra far the next day. Thank god we didn't do that.
So when we finally got to Gurye, this tiny town in a valley surrounded by mountains, the weather had turned nasty. Our view of the mountains was obscured in fog and it was even snowing in the town. I still refused the idea of hiking in the dark. Kevin got very frustrated and we argued about this. Finally while separating in the bus station for a moment, a young Korean came up to Kevin and he was studying the wall map and started asking questions. He told Kevin that you could not hike at night and he was due at a farther shelter that night. So I, smug in my haha we can't even hike at night attitude, was quite content on passing the evening in a warm minbak. So we jumped on the next little bus to the temple where 2 other men had big backpacks. They were hiking to Nogodan, the first shelter, that night no matter what. our new friend, Lee, said he was going to join them. So a crew of 3 Koreans was hiking in the night. I relented and said okay let's go too.
So before we started I bought a new headlamp and the Koreans convinced us to be "izon" they are like mini-crampons, little metal spikes that strap to your shoes. I was wearing my trail running shoes, Kevin his new Timberland boots which are hardly water proof. The other guys had gore-tex pants, gaiters, hiking poles, all the hi-tech stuff, and they almost scoffed at Kevin's jeans. However we started up the road to the temple, and as we attempting to find the trailhead and truck drove buy and told our companions that we were going the wrong way. This added to all the confusion so we headed back down to the town. After more discussion with a restaurant proprietor, our crew decided we could take a taxi around the backside of the mountain and do the short cheaters-hike to the shelter. But alas, the windy mountain road was closed, due to snow! Okay it is winter, we are starting to realize. We are frustrated and Kevin and I said we were going to stay in town until the morning. The other guys deliberated, smoked cigarettes, and said they were still going. But they were not speedy about it. We sat there for like 20 minutes and the restaurant man drove us back up the road to the temple and pointed out the trailhead. About 7:15 pm, pitch black, and we were finally on our way!
Now in good weather a fit person can do this hike in about 2 1/2 hours. It is straight up. No switch backs. There are stone steps (Koreans have been hiking in these mountains for thousands of years) that seem to climb forever. There was a light dusting of snow as we started which only increased with elevation. I think we climbed almost 4000' feet.

Kevin and I did pretty well considering we are not in top shape. We kept getting ahead of the other guys toward the end, but it was nice because they were so insistent about staying in a group. I think they had one smoke break on the way up. They were beat at the end.


So by 10pm we finally stopped climbing and had gained the ridge hooray!

Kevin and Lee on the ridge

We still had 1 km to walk on the road which had about a foot of snow on it. Thankfully there was a shortcut and we rounded a bend and saw the blessed shelter. The wind was raging and it was -13 degrees Celsius. We stumbled into the kitchen which was in a separate building from the shelter where 2 guys were attempting to sleep. The kitchen was not heated but it was much nicer than outside. We all commenced boiling water and we all ate ramen noodles for dinner. The shelter employees were not too pleased with our late arrival but we actually had reservations. I got really confused because he told me that women slept on the second floor so I stepped over a rope on the staircase and was wandering around the second floor where every door was locked. Turned out he meant the upper loft in the main sleeping room. We tried as best as we could to be quiet and settled down into an (un) fitful sleep. Thank god I brought earplugs. I have never slept in a room with that many people, I don't think, especially with numerous older men who can cut down huge forests while they snooze.

TO BE CONTNUED