Real Rock

I have mentioned to you a number of times now that I have started climbing with a couple of others in the area on a weekly. Every Wednesday we make our way to a sport wall in Tongyeong, a 30 minute drive. For the others this is just practice to keep in shape for the weekends when they travel to where ever it is not raining to climb some real rock.

The thought of climbing real rock interested my very much but until this past weekend I had been unable to do so. This past weekend they invited me along(as they have done every weekend) to climb on Geumseong-dong, which on the mountain in the middle of Busan, a city about an hour away depending on how backed up the traffic is.

Geumseong-dong is a neat area of Busan as it is a lush green forest covered mountain that is protected from development. There is a small mountain village, similar to the way it was a hundred years ago, as well as a section of "the great wall of Korea" all in the forested area, all surrounded by Korea's second largest city. All this with only one narrow two lane road snaking through it which makes for some close calls with buses.

By the time we arrived, there was quite a crew already climbing which was neat to see. There were probably about 30-40 people and of them climbers we were the only foreigners, or waygooks as we are referred to by Koreans. The amount of people was not a problem though as there were two different climbing areas with quite a number of climbs at each area. Most of the people were climbing on the upper part so we made our way down to the lower one where there wer only a couple of other people but no one climbing.

We set up, and started our day of climbing. One of the things I really enjoy about climbing is that while it is a very physically challenging time it is also very relaxed. You can set personal goals and work toward accomplishing them at your own pace. While your not climbing you can relax and encourage the others on their climb. I ended up only climbing three different routes all day, (I tried each one a number of times) but I left with sore muscles and the feeling I had accomplished something.

Here are a few pictures of the day.

The only route I cleaned.

Cash Box

Mike's belay glasses allow him to keep his eye's on the climber even though it looks like he is staring at the wall.

Tim top.

Mike almost top.

Can you see the hand holds?