Hiking on Mount Jiri

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Just back from climbing Mount Jiri. This one was totally different from the Mount Halla hike. First of all it was a two day trip and then it was also much more demanding. Mount Jiri is more a formation of several mountains with several peaks which are connected with each other. So you are basically walking along ridges and peaks. The trip started at Seongsamjae and ended about 30Km later at Cheonwangbon which is the highest peak at 1915m. I made it in 2 days which almost killed me but then again experienced hikers supposedly do it 1 day and I met a group of 80 year olds who were on a 3 day trip... I"ll be lucky to walk by that age. Due to the over night stay I had to sleep in a shelter. That was one of the worst sleeping experiences ever. Imagine being stuffed in a sticky room with 40 other people and having to listen to a symphony of snooring and farting. On top of that you have no washing facilities as people are not supposed to impact the environment. You can imagine the peculiar smell developing in the sleeping hall.

Anyways the hike itself was good on the first day. I had covered about 65% of the overall distance. The second day however didn't start all to well. I barely slept due to the shelter conditions and I probably hadn't eaten properly on the first day. After walking a couple of miles my body really felt ready to give up and I actually had turned around to return to the shelter but then I thought, what the heck, I have made it this far - I am gonna finish this one. Well, I did finish it and it showed me that you can achieve a lot by pure perseverance. It was really hard though as the trail was having up and downs literally every 50 m. Having reached the peak at Cheongwangbon I had the obligatory picture taken and then hurried down as temperatures were below 10 degrees and the wind decided to show all its strength.

All in all I am realy happy to have finished the hike. Well, I'm heading out to Busan tomorrow and will return to Seoul ib the weekend.

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Photos

Japanese Posse
My fellow Japanese WOOFERs, Hashimoto san and Yumiko san

Sunrise Seongsamjae
Weather was good at the start of the hike

Trail Up
Typical narrow path. Goes up...

Trail Down
... goes down

Really Tired!
I am trying to smile by the way