Geumhaksan, Cheorwon

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An early start! We left Seoul before eight am and drove north toward the DMZ. A brief break in Uijeongbu to pick so people pick, I don't think they turned up, and then a shorter drive to our first proper stop of the day.

The Battle of White Horse was a series of bloody battles that took place during the Korean War, to gain control of the hilltop positions. Baengma-gji was the peak of the Iron Triangle, formed by Pyeongyang and Gimhwa and Cheorwon were the two points at its base. The hilltop and the surrounding area was very important as a strategic transport route in the central region of the Korean peninsula. During the ten day battle between the South Korean troop and the Chinese the hill changed hands 24 times. That's a bloody lot! The battle took place on 6th - 15th October 1952.

I had been to this area but it was a few years ago. We walked up the hill to the monument, which commemorates the battle and there is also a commemorative bell, which Malia was about to ring before we stopped her. From the view viewpoint at the top of the hill we could look out to North Korea, so we gave Kim Jong-eun a wave. The area all round the hill is farmland. Cheorwon rice is some of the best grown in Korea. We only stopped at the hill for about fifteen minutes and then we headed back to the bus and our next stop, the Labour Party Building. I had been here before and had fund it interesting, but this time it was all wrapped up, as it was undergoing some conservation work. I didn't bother going over to take a look.

We had anther drive of, I think, about an hour maybe a bit more, arrived in what I think was Cheorwon town. Well, I've just google mapped it and it's kinda Cheorwon-eup, Dongsong-eup way. An eup is a small town (population less than 500,000) within a city. Eups are small and usually rural. The bus dropped us on the main road f the town, so we had to get off the bus pretty sharpish as we were holding the traffic up.

The start of the trail was about a ten minute walk from the town. We were amazed when we got to the start of the trail as there was a tonne of snow. We put our crampons on and headed to the trail map. We hadn't really seen any proper snow yet where I live, but here there was plenty. Warren pointed out the main points on the map and then we were off.

The first part of the hike wasn't too bad. A bit steep in places, and I was going even slower than usual due to the snow. And my evil crampons that kept coming loose. I think it took us less than an hour to reach the half way point. The views going up were nice, and when we reached the halfway marker we could see Cheorwon below. We got some photos and took a little breather before we continued on our way.

The rest of the hike to the top took about an hour to an hour and a half. It was a bit better as it wasn't all straight uphill. There was a bit more variety. There were quite a few remnants of the Korean war. There were stone bunkers built int the hillsides. However most of them were covered over, so there was no way to get inside of them. It would of been cool to go inside and peak out over the valley below. I definitely can say I'm glad I was never a soldier in the Korean War. It must of been so cold and the conditions so harsh on the mountain. It wasn't ever winter proper, yet, it must of been really bleak in December January time. We continued hiking wondering how far we were from the top, I wish they had more markers along the trail to see how far you've gone. I like to see the metres going down regularly to keep me motivated. We were wondering how much further we had to go, when we saw the others on their way back down. They said it was only another ten minutes to the top, so we persevered. We were really surprised when we got to the top. There was a helipad and lots of military outhouses painted in camouflage, small ruins, and bunkers. Not what you expect at the top of a mountain. There was also a military installation a bit higher up. There was a peak marker over there, too, but we didn't know that it was there. We spent a while taking some photos. Don't try and lie on the helipad to get a selfie of yourself and the star. ROK soldiers don't like it, and they shout over loudspeakers at you!

The walk back down the mountain was a lot quicker and we caught up with Ashley and Warren. We saw the guys doing trail maintenance, putting new wooden steps in. We made it down early, about twenty minutes ahead of schedule. There was a cute coffee shop in between the trail entrance and the main road, so we stopped in their for a hot drink to warm us up. Then we went and waited for the bus driver to pick us up. We waited and waited and waited. The bloody idiot had went to a completely different town miles away to pick us up. Argh! It was well over an hour's drive away. We were all really pissed off. It was freezing and we were hungry and cold. We decided to all go for dinner. The others went for Korean, but me, Ashley, and Malia decided we needed some Chimaek. Chimaek is chicken and beer Chi(cken) + Maek(ju) beer. We were starving and freezing we sat by the heater in the restaurant and warmed up a bit. The chicken and beer went down a treat. We finally saw the bus go past, at last we could get on the bus and go home!

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