Myeongjisan, where Winter meets Fall: Part 2

In case you've not read it yet, click here for Part 1 of this post.

As we approached the upper ridge near the summit, the snow began to get thicker.

We also had to put crampons on our shoes, as it was getting slippery.

1.0km to Myeongjisan.

The path finally flattened out once we reached the ridge. 

I didn't need my coat for most of the hike as I sweat like a pig when I exercise. 

Finally! The summit.

There was some slight mist but from the top we got a great view of the surrounding mountains.

A view of the ridge we'd just walked along.

Here I am with some of the guys, posing for a photo. Warren ordered us to cheer and look excited but as you can see we were mostly just exhausted from the climb.

A distant town down in the valley. 

Warren snacking among the rocks.

We started to get cold from standing around taking photos, so we soon began our descent back down another side of the mountain.

Going down is always more treacherous than going up, and some parts of the trail were simply better traversed on our behinds.

Warren washing his hands in a freezing cold creek (a very Warren thing to do!).

One last gorgeous vista, straight out of an ancient watercolour painting.

Back at the base of the mountain we shared some Korean stew in a restaurant that was so warm and cosy it steamed my camera lens up.

On the bus ride home we were all in desperate need of sleep, but Warren, eternal font of enthusiasm that he is, insisted we do noraebang (Korean karaoke) instead. Between my yawns I sung Don't Stop Me Now by Queen.

I really enjoyed this hike. It was great to finally see some of Korea's rural landscapes, and I also got to meet lots of cool people along the way. Myeongjisan looked beautiful, and I might return there in the spring-summer months to see how much it changes after winter-fall time.