High 1

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16th Feb: Last ski trip of the season for me. Up at the ungodly hour of 5 am. Was in Seoul and on the bus by half seven. The journey was uneventful, I napped for most of it. We stopped around 9:30 at a service station to grab a coffe and food if you were hungry. We arrived at the High 1 ski area around 11. We had made great time with the traffic not being bad at all, so we would get plenty of skiing in.

Our first stop was in town at the rental shop. We all got sorted with our skis, snowboards, boots and clothing. I picked out a gorgeous jacket and pants, they were matching and so bright. Orange and yellow! You would definitely see me coming down the slopes. We were also given some coupons for our lift tickets and once we were all ready it was back on the bus to drive up to the resort.

When we got to the resort we waited for our gear that was coming in a seperate van, as it usually does. Then we exchanged our coupons for our real lift tickets. These were pretty high tech. We were given little cards and told to but them in the breast pockets of our jackets. Then when we went through the turnstiles we just had to turn so our bodies were facing the scanner. Very impressive! It worked everytime for me! Although it did feel a bit random, turning and angling your boob at a wall type thing.

The afternoon was spent skiing. Our lift passes were good until about half four or five. However they shut down some of the lifts a bit earlier and only have the main chairlifts and the cable cars going. It definitely pays to go on the mre advanced runs in Korea, as they are always a lot less crowded than the beginner ones. The runs were pretty good. We did a nice ong easy one to start off and then progressed to the harder ones and stayed there. Only problem was they were all a bit too short. Also the weather was pretty nice. It wasn't too cold and I didn't feel like my fingers were going to drop off. In fact it mst of been quite warm as I got really thirsty at one point.

Once the skiing was over, we headed to the resort's spa. We were probably not allowed to use it, as we weren't staying at the actual High 1 resort, but ssh! It was lovely, we all sat in one of the pools and let the heat penetrate our achey bones. The prefect end to a day's skiing. We spent about an hour there, and then we got onto the bus to drive to our pension for the night.

The pension we were staying at was nothing like I imagined. When I think of a pension I think of little buildings, but this place was massive. It had tens of floors and the corridors on each floor were never ending. The whole place looked brand-new and the rooms were modern and very clean. Whilst tea was being made we headed down to the inhouse convenience store to stock up on some bevvies and snacks. Oh my God! The prices were unreal. It's normally unusual for places in Korea to hike up their prices just because of location. When I've been to football and baseball games the prices in the stadiums were the same as outside. However, here we were totally ripped off on our beers.

Dinner was burgers and chicken nuggets, washed down with beer, soju, and orange juice. Then I spent a bit of time chatting to the others. I decided to have an early night. I was glad I had picked the quiet room to sleep in, so after waiting a while for a shower, I got all clean put me jarmies on and settled down for the night.

17th Feb: Not the greatest night's sleep due to the snorers in our room. I wish I had some ear plugs, but when the guy in the chemist laughed at me, when I asked him if they sold them, I just don't know where to get them from. my alarm went off at 6:45, but I didn't really hear it very well, as it was hidden under the thick duvet. Quickly got dressed, packed up, and went to the other room, where Jason had prepared us his lovely breakfast burritos. After scoffing that and a shit stick (nasty instant coffee stick), we left the pension and went downstairs to dump our stuff on the bus.

We then walked to the rental shop and picked up our gear. I was gutted that I couldn't get the same outfit as yesterday and I had to make do with only the jacket. But I did team it with a nice bright pair of orange pants. Then since the shuttle bus from the pension didn't leave for another hour we sweet talked the rental shop into giving us a lift to the resort. That was so nice of them and it meant we got out on the snow sooner.

The rental shop delivered us to the resort and those of us, who hadn't been given lift passes exchanged our coupons. Then we took the gondola to the part of the resort we would be picked up at later and dumped our shoes in the lockers and then hit the slopes. We had a lovely morning skiing. It wasn't too busy at first, but it soon got crowded, so we stayed on the more advanced slopes. It was a lovely morning spent skiing, although my thighs were killing on some of the tougher runs. Also it was a bit colder and a bit windier than yesterday.

Before we knew it, it was almost 12:30 and we had to go change into our proper shoes and take our rentals back. There was a guy waiting to grab our stuff and then we went off to find the bus, which was parked down a hill canny far away. One of the guys on the bus couldn't be found anywhere and we ended up waiting for him, for what felt like forever. Finally he turned up and we started to make our way back to Seoul. We drove for a couple of hours before stopping at the rest stop to get a late lunch. Ddeok mandu ramyeon, delish! Since the traffic was moving fast and there were no traffic jams we made it back to Seoul around 5 pm. Result!

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Photos

Escalator up a Mountain
Only in Korea!

The Spa
High 1