It's officially autumn in Jinju. The nights are cold, the morning air is crisp and the afternoons remain warm under the sun. The leaves have yet to turn, but I am told that will happen in the next few weeks. Jinju weather right now is really quite refreshing.
Summer in Jinju was, in one word, epic. I hardly had time to bat an eye between all the beach days, baseball games, festivals, picnics, bike rides, hikes, rock climbing trips, late night norae bang sessions and Mongolia. Mmmm, rock climbning. Rock climbing has become an addiction--no, an infatuation--for me and a handful of friends here.
I was first introduced to climbing during the summer of 2009 and it was love at first sight. Unfortunately, after spending over a week in Squamish, British Columbia, climbing was absent from my life for the next ten months or so. Until, of course, Korea brought it back.
Below is part of a blog post I wrote near the end of my Squamish trip. Sitting here moments ago, I recalled writing this while still in Squamish and thought it would be interesting to re-read what I wrote when I was being introduced to the sport.
"Seductive Squamish: Adventures on the Rocks
It's now my eighth day in Squamish, British Columbia, and impressed is an understatement of how I feel about this place. It's breathtakingly beautiful, with the town nestled between massive rocky peaks and an endless green of fir tree after fir tree. I know I have been lucky; I've seen nothing but sunshine and blue skies until today, where I now take refuge in the Squamish Public Library from the chill of overcast skies and intermittent drizzles of rain.
I could not think of a better place to be introduced to the sport of rock climbing. Throughout the past week, I have tested my mind and body in ways that until now have been unfamiliar to me. It's as much a mental game as it is physical, demanding from your mind an intense focus on each move, with a need for problem-solving and piecing together a puzzle, all while hanging on by fingertips and the tips of your toes, shifting your weight until you find the right balance to stay on the rock.
No doubt, there is an adrenaline rush that takes you right up to the top of the rock (although, I never truly notice it until I've reached the peak, and then even more when my feet are safely back on the ground). The rush of feeling you get on the inside is indescribable, and nothing like that of finishing a race, winning a soccer match, or reaching the summit of a long hike."
I include this because I was trying to think of how to describe what climbing feels like to someone who has never done it before. Having always been an athlete, I've had plenty of experiences that demand an incredible amount of physical and mental exertion, concentration, focus and confidence. I'm familiar with pushing my mind and body to new places, above and beyond what I had expected from myself. I'm used to challenging myself and being challenged by people around me. But, that still doesn't even begin to cover what it feels like to climb.
I guess I'll just post some pictures of this year's climbing adventures instead.
These are from Sancheong, about a half hour north of Jinju. This was my very first outdoor climbing trip in Korea:
The next two photos are from what we call the "Sea Wall," about 45 minutes south of Jinju in Samcheonpo. This is a great warm-weather climbing spot since the ocean is right there. That means we swim, climb, swim, sunbathe, climb, swim, etc. Good stuff.
Probably one of my favorite places in Korea thus far, Yongseo Pokpo (Forgiveness Waterfall), is a few hours away but a place we've returned to a few times. As you can see, all the climbing routes are right there next to the falls. Like the Sea Wall, we can climb, swim, climb, swim; AND, there are places to pitch a few tents to make a great weekend out of it. As you can see in the last photo, we gave night-climbing a go after we'd already had dinner and sat around a campfire for a little while.
The rest of the pictures are from my most recent climbing trip up north to Chuncheon, near the North Korean border. There were six of us total and we did a four-pitch climb; this was also the first multi-pitch climb for three of us, so it was an awesome weekend.
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