but i will rise...

last weekend...finally went up seoraksan, one of the highest peaks in Korea. see some photos!

the plan was to reach the peak by sunrise, about 4 hours up. we left an hour and a half late (430 am!), however, so we hit sunrise about an hour from the top. still worth it! the first few hours in the dark were cold and slick, but it was a lovely uphill walk in the moonlight - completely clear winter sky. luckily, the group leader had some crampons, enough for a half-pair per person. so my right foot had great traction from the crampon, which i used heavily anytime we went downhill.

passing through the park entrance, the man at the booth asked us if we had two pairs of pants on, two pairs of socks, gloves, a mask...we knew we were hiking a mountain in the winter, but we had no idea how important his questions were...

hiking up, up, up was fairly slow and with a big group we stopped fairly frequently for energy breaks. it was somewhere in the negative celsius range at the beginning, but not bad with all our layers.

observation #1: korean hiker hospitality. after stopping for the last time before the peak, i stopped next to a stranger taking a rest. he offered me a piece of candy and then a hot drink from his thermos. it's amazing what hot tea does on a winter hike! we were blessed similarly throughout the hike, hikers giving our group snacks, drinks, pieces of clothing. and none of it solicited. they saw a need and freely gave their stuff to us. it was really humbling.

we made it to the top, and with no trees and a clear sky, the wind was biting to the temperature of -35 celsius! it's hard to imagine what that kind of cold feels like, but any skin exposed was numbed immediately. even my right eye (where the wind was coming from), felt like it was being frozen. about half a km from the top was a mountain shelter where we "warmed up" (although it was still cold inside). my feet, with one pair of socks, were quite cold and i took my shoes off to warm up my toes. a masked hiker (i call him the sock ninja because he came out of nowhere) handed me a pair of socks and left the shelter. seriously, korean hiker hospitality.

on the way down, we found that previous hikers had made snow slides and we slid at least a km down the mountain, freezing my sweatpants - but so worth it. it made going down the mountain a whole lot faster.

altogether, we hiked 13 km and, with frequent shelter breaks, about 11 hours. a lovely mountain day.

a video taken by the group leader...

yesterday, we went to the puzzle cafe where you pay for a drink, snacks, and a 500 piece puzzle to put together while you're there. if two people finish the 500 piece puzzle in three hours, you get to keep the puzzle. our group finished in about an hour and a half. serious puzzle action goes on in that little cafe - the largest puzzle in the world adorns the wall. i have photos but i have to leave for church now so i will update it later.

off into the winter air. second semester starts tomorrow!