High 1 Trip

Several weekends ago, I embarked on a trip with friends and teachers to a mountain. A mountain with snow. A mountain for snowboarding. This mountain was called High 1 and is one the biggest ski resorts in Korea. That said, it’s not massively huge – and most of the snow is quite unnatural. However, we excelled – and embraced – along with most (if not all) of Korea. After talking with our snowboard rental guy/driver, we discovered that the Saturday we were there broke all records for business. That was a great feeling.

Now, I’m not being bitter. I really did have fun. And gave it my all. This included most of my body. I was not prepared to hold anything back – and as I love to travel quickly down the slopes (some would say recklessly) I tended to fall – often and dramatically. Others on the trip can attest to this. As a result, my body was sore (very) after finishing up Saturday evening.

I want to start with some props. My good friend Phil really was the brains behind the whole operation. It was his idea. He did the research. He coordinated the people. So props to him. Thanks should also go to his co-teacher Kelly. She organized the condo where we stayed Saturday night. Without her Korean speaking ability, we probably would have been sleeping under snowboards somewhere.

The day started off rather shakily. We arrived to the mountain only to find that all the rentals had been…well…rented. This called for desperate measures. At least by my standards. We all had to pile into a somewhat small van and careen down the mountainside to a rental shop to pick up the necessary goods. Once all that was taken care of, though, the fun began to start in earnest.

The mountain itself was impressive. Tons of runs, lifts and possibilities. Again, the amount of people was tiresome, but not oppressive. Thankfully the mountain was big enough to accommodate most of them. We managed to put in some good hours but everyone was pretty beat by the evening. It was also much colder…which is draining in itself.

Back at the condo that evening, we ate, drank and watched the Sex and the City movie – on TV. Actually, we played some Go Stop (a Korean card game) as well. That was fun. There were a lot of us in that condo – 11 in fact – so sleeping was almost like an enormous Tetris puzzle. We made it work.

I had a great time. I’ve actually been boarding since this trip and enjoyed it as much - if not more so. But that’s another story. I do think, however, that I want to explore more boarding possibilities when I return home to a land with real snow on the mountains.

I’ll be back soon – with more pictures! Trust me.

-Paul