I love nature. I love how the mountain smells like in the morning. When I first set foot into Korea, I wanted to hike up a mountain. I started thinking about which mountain I should conquer, seeing that it will be my virgin experience.
I was just browsing through Instagram and I came across Hallasan. Not only did I saw beautiful pictures of the tallest mountain in Korea, I saw how my friends conquered it. It all seemed really easy for them, so I thought, why not?
So on a cold autumn morning, I woke up at 5 am and packed my bag. I bought 2 huge sweet potatoes from the convenience shop that is conveniently located right below my Airbnb. I called a taxi and headed to the starting point.
Without any proper hiking boots and hiking stick, I started making my way up. At first, I thought I was alone but nope, there were people who were earlier than I was. It wasn’t tough though, not at least until 1 hour later when I reached the toughest portion of the trail.
I was panting, I was perspiring yet I felt cold. My legs were shaking from the climb and I was only halfway there. To be honest I wanted to give up, its easier for me to give up than to keep going anyway. But as I was climbing, there were a group of senior citizens who climbed faster than I did. So I told myself that if they can do it, so can I.
I pressed on. After 2 hours from the start, I reached a rest point. I sat down and ate my sweet potato to regain some energy for the last 1 hour. After my small little snack, I proceeded to attempt to finish the last lap. Guess what, I started feeling raindrops. I just stood there, feeling baffled. What was I supposed to do?
I continued to climb, seeing that it was just a slight drizzle. Not going to lie, I was rather afraid of climbing up since I was just wearing a pair of sneakers; my soles were worn out. However, I pressed on. It started to rain even heavier and the temperature plummeted to negative one degrees Celsius (I started out with sixteen degrees). With just two jumpers, I was shivering. My fingers were extremely red and numb. My ears were sore.
After countless “Good morning” from fellow hikers, I was at the peak of the mountain. Total time of 3 hours. I was extremely proud of myself. However, remember the rain? It was too cold at the top of the mountain that it became a hail storm. Bullets of ice were just pelting against my face; it was too cold and painful. A 3 hour climb up to the peak but I only stayed there for a minute. I made my way down after a few speedy clicks on my mobile to capture the peak.
The trip back down was harder than climbing back up: I slipped a few times as the rocks and dirt path was way too slippery. It took me a total of three hours and thirty minutes to get back to the starting point. When I was at the bottom of the mountain, I was so happy but yet I couldn’t stand properly; my legs were shaking vigorously. I couldn’t feel my legs.
I called a cab to get me straight to my Airbnb. I skipped lunch and slept all the way until dinner. Mind you, I had no climbing experience and I did not train for it. However, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. Would I do it again? Perhaps, but with proper hiking gear.
Oh, pictures were all taken on film, just because a film camera is extremely light for me to hike up the mountain! They are not perfect but I hope you like it, it wasn’t easy hiking and taking pictures, not for me at least.
