I had a life change recently, moving into a big city from a remote small town of Kofu... Kofu was a small community, in every way. Now I am in a city, capital city of Kyusyu island... Kyusyu Island itself has a size of Australian GDP, so it's capital is a big city.
My apartment in Kofu was 4 hours away from Narita International Airport by bus. Whereas my apartment in Fukuoka is only 30 min away from Fukuoka International airport by subway. 4 hours on bus vs 30min subway. This is the change I am going through in short.
I had adapted myself to fit in "4 hour on bus to nearest Int.Airport" in 7 years of effort. Now I have to adapt myself back to "30 min subway" style.
My value has changed in these 7 years... I pay no attention to fancy stuff anymore, because I just realized I don't need any high heals. If you want to make me happy, buy me a pair of ice axes instead of a designer's bag or dress or even jewelry... I don't even wore my marriage ring since it is dangerous when climbing rock. Of Course no manicures nor make-ups.
Going Abroad Is Easy
Anyway, now I am in a big city and the city has it own merit. No.1. It is so close to the international airport and the flight is cheap.
So I had changed my scheme; before it was wiser to climb Kabuto iwa, 30 min drive from my home, door to door. Climbing rock is free and climbing in the gym is expensive. So I went out often to the rock. As often as I can. 2 to 3 times a week.
Now I am close to international airport so I decided to go abroad instead of small rock garden nearby.
Insubong
So this is my second time in Insubong. My partner is a skilled climber so he sometimes does climbing guide... this time, his client cancelled the climb and he had to get his gear back to Japan. He had left it since he thought he's coming back soon. So now it is my turn to accompany with him.
For me, the second time in Insubong came sooner than I wanted... to be honest. Because unlike Laos where I enjoyed the sport climbing so much, the Insubong climbing is very dangerous. It is more like alpine climbing than sport climbing.
Don't understand what I mean? It means runout. It means bolts are so far away and protection is poor. It means easy fall is no no. Yes, Insubong is Trad. Mostly crack climbing and I am only a beginner of crack climbing... I started crack last year.
So even 5.8 crack is dangerous. It's up to your protection setting skill. Mine is still unreliable. If you fall with well-set cam, you will fall 10 meter. If your poorly set cam is removed by the shock of fall, you fall 20 meter at least.
Not just that, Insboung is 200 meter wall so the route is mostly multi-pitch, that means not a short root like we all know, a belayer is NOT on the ground. She/he is on a hanging belay. So that means, when you are climbing 20m on 4th pitch, you can fall 80 meter if it is a ground fall. When you climbing a short route like the one we climb regularly, just one climb and lower down and its repetition... you only fall 20 meter even in the most severe fall.
So for me climbing on Insbong is still a lot of pressure and I was told I can lead climb from the 3rd time... now he thinks it is 5 years not 3 times!
So far my climbing agenda is to build up my upper body strength and be more skillful climber. To achieve that, it seemed to me that Laos was the best answer so far... it was fun, it was all-you-can-climb environment, and it was safe with very reliable bolts with proper distance, no runout.
Challenge to the Insubong should come after that. Otherwise I will risk my life.
So for me, the second time Insubong was not just one color it had more mixed feelings... I was of course happy but at the same time, I felt a pressure.
Anyway, it is important to enjoy every moment of life, right? So this is how we did enjoyed our 2nd climb in Seoul.
Day 1
I arrived Incheon International Airport around 15:00 pm and my partner's flight was arriving at 16:30 from Narita. I spent my first couple of hours in a airport cafe and had sent a few message to my partner.
It was around the time he should come out from the exit but not yet... it is almost half an hour past his flight arrival... so many Japanese people came out already and met their family or a friend or a guide... so I was very anxious...we crossed?
Finally he came, I was so happy! And you know what he said? "I forgot my mobile at home".
Since this happening and we knew we are there late afternoon, we just weren't thinking enough... we automatically hurried to the airport bus to Suyu station since it was the place of transfer... to go to Insubong, people goto Suyu and get a cab, that is the way to make cab cost most cheap. But this time we weren't thinking enough.
We had no reservation on that night. We get on a bus around 18:00 pm and if it is smooth, it is usually 1 hour bus ride... but it was rush hour, traffic jam was heavy and it was getting dark. My partner was alerted. "Let's get off in the center of the city. So we can find a hotel or something". "No hotel in Suyu?" "I never stayed at Suyu. I don't think we can find one. What about getting off at Myondon?" "OK".
But the bus had skipped mid city and get us straight to suburb. "Well..., then, let's climb up to the Pegun hut tonight. The worst scenario, but we'll get there by 11 pm." I was thinking getting late too so my headlight was in my hand bag not in my backpack.
We were in Suyu and the sight was so familiar. I remembered the place from the last time. My partner needed to smoke to sooth himself... while he was smoking, I saw several signs it said "hotel". Obviously it was not normal kind of hotel but the one in front said designers hotel, and it seems like business hotel in Tokyo or anywhere. So I just popped in, asked vacancy and the price. It was only 50000 won. Cheap. Even mountain hut had costed 35000 per person. So then we had a hotel. My partner was so surprised that I had this action.
We were free from heavy backpack and worry so we went out for a dinner. Suyu was no tourist town... no signs were English nor Japanese... so we could not read menu, and afraid of being ripped off, we chose a small bending machine type restaurant. I had noodle but it was too hot I could not finish and asked different dish again. He ate my noodle and next day he had sore in his butt. It was just too hot for us.
Next morning we were up early and there were a bakery on a corner. Paris bugetts was the store name and there were Paris buggets in every corner as if convenience stores... we had a morning coffee and sandwich and paid 30000 won... considering how cheap was the night, it was rather expensive breakfast.
We got on a taxi, got to Tosonsa, the trail entrance, and shorter than one hour, we arrived at the mountain hut. The mountain was so beautifull and Autom was not yet to come, it was much more greener than we expected. Warmth too.
There, Mr.Ri was waiting for us. He is an old man, over 80, and still working at the hut. Ri speaks Japanese but he does not hear well so you must speak loudly. Omoni is his wife, and maybe the most important person to please. Last time I had a pretty souvenir for Omoni, but I could not please her. This time, I got a purse, Japanese Kyo waving, and it impressed her obviously.
We already started climbing afternoon, we had gone to Ujoen 9 pitch multi-pitch route.
For my partner, it was not a difficult route so he insisted on climbing with his back pack! But for me, I did not have much experience in wide crack and wide crack can not be experienced in a climbing gym... so was very tiring.
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| 99% no fall is needed |
That night was noisy. There were some rangers staying the hut, and one of them kept his mobile TV so loud, I could not go to sleep.
2nd day we climbed Insu A and Kunhyon crack. It was also wide crack and this day I was getting used to the wide and got a better climb.
3rd day were Saturday, and we were there to wait for Korean friend. My partner was anxious, since he had no his smart phone. Maybe a message crossed? We waited until evening but the person did not show up so, we started our dinner.
Mr. Ri was waiting for us to open our whisky... and to my surprise, he got one big drink without water. So he was suddenly drunk! Whisky is so expensive in Korea, that is why.
4th day was already our last day, and we had hurried to the rock since we expect many people to come. We climbed Chouinard B, where my partner had a fall and injured his heel last time. He had broken his heel, he thought but he kept climbing over two weeks... I felt so sad and angry about this...at the same time I was amazed his strength and felt gratitude... after all he putted up the pain for me. But I could wait, and he could trust me I would wait.
So this is such route. In the last pitch where he fell, from the belay point where I am, he could not be seen.... so only sign of his movement was rope. The rope was slow... it was a difficult pitch.
When a lead climber is slow, that means difficult, and when the same pitch can be climbed so fast by second climber, the lead climber is usually a little sad. Because his effort seem belittled. But anyone knows the lead climb is 3 times or 4 times or even 5 times more difficult than a second climber.
The pitch was such pitch. I had a difficulty but it was OK.
And the left was slab. Unlike crack and wide, I was getting used to slab climbing and it was a difficult pitch but I was smooth. As a second, meaning no fear of a big fall, that is a different story.
The last day we get down the mountain avoiding the crowd... as long as I can see more than 30 climbers was on the rock. My partner is expart so he knows importance of avoiding crowed. Crowded rock is No.1 risk in the climbing.
When we said good bye to Mr. Ri, he and his wife came outside to shake our hands and that made us surprise. Ri san and Omoni really liked our stay. They were so nice to us, to be honest they charged us sooo little. It was almost nothing.
Back in Uidon, we had fresh foods and drunk our beer, my partner had a bath. I was on my own sight seeing and shopping in Uidon.
That night we went back to Suyu just for the next time we come we decided to explore more in Suyu and we found a nice restaurant where we can order by pointing number and the manu said the price. We also found North Face in Suyu has a climbing gym.
So this is how we climbed. I was just too scared of the not enough climbing training... as long as I go to Laos and sport climb, I don't really worry about lead climbing... I can lead climb the route that matches to my grade and skill. But in Insubong I need something more than that... perhaps, mastery? I am a beginer of 5.9 and 5.10a that is around 6a, that means sometimes I can fall on 6A maybe 80% no fall. But in Insubong I have to be an expert of 5.9 to lead climb here. Perhaps 99% no fall.
So 80% no fall and 99% no fall are very very far away.