*Deep Breath* Ahhh… I love the smell of fresh mountain air. It was a crisp day as we headed out to go hiking. The sun was warm and the air was cold… perfect hiking conditions. We were heading to Bukhansan National Park which was about 45 minutes north of Ewha, which I feel had to be somewhat near North Korea. I packed a light back, it was only a National Park after all. I figured it would be more of a path of a hill than a hike.

About 30 minutes into the hike my worries about it not being hard enough were proven incorrect. My heart was pounding and my head was aching. It was like hiking up 30 degree incline of boulder field [Local PA reference for you out-of-towners… imagine a field of boulders]. Adam, our ‘leader’ of the friend group hiking pack let us know “well, that’s probably the hardest we’ll see all day!” Thank goodness! We hiked the last little bit to where it leveled off. The view from where we were was amazing…. and then we realized that a few hundred feet above us was the ‘actual’ peak. Most of the group stayed in place and two of us grabbed ahold of the metal rope attached to the mountain and started the ascent. It started to get more windy and cold so the layers started going back on. It started getting much steeper without much foothold. That metal rope was now the only thing keeping me on that mountain. There are no pictures of this part of the trip because — well — you had to hold onto the rope to scale, unattached, along the side of the cliff to your death if you let go.

The snow and slush on the rocks made my sneakers not the best hiking apparel. Adam turned back to me and yelled “Remember that part about saying it was probably the hardest we’d see all day?! I was wrong!” hah! I couldn’t stop laughing thinking about that statement the rest of the way up. Whenever you think you have a handle on things something else is always thrown at you. Never get comfortable!

The top of the peak was amazing! You could see all of Seoul and the surrounding mountains. We were even higher up than Seoul Tower. It really felt like I was on the top of the world there for a moment. The safety regulations [or lack there of] are nothing like those in the U.S. If you die – that’s on you. It was so cool looking down on the city and looking down on a helicopter flying around! I would do that every week if I could! [Update from the future… we were only at about 2,700′]