It was the second and last day of us in Jeju Island. We woke up really early so that we can reach Mt Hallasan and complete the hike on time. Mt Hallasan is also an UNESCO World Heritage Site! We checked out of Shilla Stay hotel and proceeded to GS25 for some simple breakfast (sandwiches and Samgak-kimbap, or rather known as onigiri in Japan). Headed to the hotel's carpark and drove to Mt Hallasan while having our breakfast in the car.
Let me fill you up with some essential information of Mt Hallasan! Mt Hallasan is 1950m above sea level and it is the highest mountain in South Korea. There are several hiking trails to the top of Mt Hallasan and all of them are less than 10km in distance. Do check the operating hours of the different trails so that you will not be turned down when you want to start hiking. Do note that only Seongpanak Trail and Gwaneumsa Trail go all the way up to the summit (Baekrokdam). The other trails are less vigorous but they only reach mid-mountain! Here are information on some of the trails which are more popular to both tourists and locals. Information grabbed from here!
- Gwaneumsa Trail (North)—Summit Trail
- Gwaneumsa Trail offers hikers the best view of Hallasan’s deep valleys and stunning terrain. Midway along the trail is Guringul (a lava cave) and Tamna Valley. Tamna Valley is especially beautiful during the fall when the leaves are changing and during the winter when the entire area lays under a dusting of snow.
- Seongpanak Trail (East)—Summit Trail
- This relatively long, gently sloping trail is perfect for beginners. Lush broadleaf trees give shade from the beating sun and in spring the azaleas bloom and turn the mountainside into a dazzling array of color.
- Eorimok Trail (Northwest)
- This short trail is another relatively easy trail for beginners. In spring, the nearby meadows are adorned with red royal azaleas. From the stone pathway to Mansedongsan visitors can catch a breathtaking panoramic view of the countryside and the island’s signature Oreums.
- Yeongsil Trail (Southwest)
- As the shortest trail in Hallasan, this trail boasts Yeongsilgiam (a spectacular cliff with series of unusual rock formations). It is covered with azaleas and royal azaleas in spring and vibrant autumn foliage starting in October.
We reached the foot of the mountain and the sky was still dark. The wind was unforgiving and we were all shivering from the cold. There were already people here starting the hike. We took the Seongpanak Trail because it is supposedly "perfect for beginners". Do remember to bring your own water as there will not be any water sources available!
There is only one trail to follow so it is almost impossible to get lost. I am not sure about the rest of the trails, but you will need to start hiking before 8am for Seongpanak trail as you will have to reach mid-mountain before 12pm for a safe hike when you're coming down from the mountain top. Seongpanak is 9.6km in distance, so its a total of 19.2km if you are taking the same trail while coming down the mountain. We started hiking around 7am and ended at 4.30pm!
One thing to note will be that if you are coming here during the winter season, do prepare the essentials to protect you from the cold. For example, ear muffs, gloves and heat packs. Do layer your clothes properly because you do not want to hike while shivering in the cold! You can choose to pack some snacks like kimbap and hot water to keep yourself going for the hike. There will be a snack bar at around mid-mountain selling snacks for all the hikers. However, there will be no dustbins throughout the hike and hikers are required to throw their garbage at the foot of the mountain after their hike.
Sky was still dark but the sun was rising slowly. One thing that I loved about this hike was the ever-changing landscape because of the rising sun. And since we came here during the winter, most of the canopy have fallen onto the forest floor. The view was still amazing and it would be a great idea to look around while hiking so that you will not miss out on the gorgeous scenery that Mt Hallasan has to offer.
The trek starts out smooth, and the difficulty gradually increases as you are reaching the mountain peak. As you can see from the image above, yellow represents easy, green for normal and red for hard. The trek gets more and more rocky so if you have proper hiking gear, please use it, it will go a long way in helping you reach the summit. We could not find any water source at the "potable water" checkpoint, probably because its winter. So please bring your own water bottles!
Remember what I said about the ever-changing scenery because of the rising sunlight? This is what I meant and there will be more change in the scenery as you're reaching the summit!
The path is gradually increasing in difficulty from little pebbles to big chunky rocks when you're closer to the top. You will also encounter bridges made from planks to cross over rivers which were already dried when we were hiking.
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| I believe we have found the forest troll. |
You will be more thankful for the planked trails when you are climbing down the mountain. No explanation needed haha. We reached Sokbat Shelter at around 8.30am. The shelter was only a resting place with toilets and benches for hikers to rest before carrying on with their hike!
We carried on hiking after a few minutes of rest and frozen trees began to enter our landscape!
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| Dried river! |
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| We smiled because we didnt know what's waiting for us ahead. |
We knew we had to take a picture together when we saw the beautiful frozen landscape! There were people of all ages hiking the trail too, from young teenagers like us to elders hiking in a group. Similar to us, the elders motivated each other to not give up in order to reach the summit. One of the ahjusshis (uncles) even started singing and everyone was hiking along with the beats of his songs.
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| The only selfie I took for the whole trip because my arms are too short LOL |
It was around 9.30am and we are on our way to Jindallaebat Shelter. We are actually quite hyped to know that we will be reaching the shelter soon because we heard that there will be snacks sold there and most importantly INSTANT NOODLES.
As you can see from the picture above, the trek is getting more rocky compared to the terrain at the start of the trail. We were greeted by a panorama of frosty forest canopy before reaching the shelter. We reached the shelter around 10am!
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| Can you see the helicopter pad? |
We have soon reached Jindallaebat Shelter at around 10am. Words cannot describe the beauty of this place. It was filled with frost and ice everywhere, but it was not snowing. There are a lot of hikers taking pictures around here and most of the hikers are locals. We seemed to be one of the only foreigners around here! After taking pictures, we entered the shelter to find out what they were selling.
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| The instant noodles that brought my soul back to my body. |
The shelter sold different snacks like chocolate bars, chocolate pies, coffee and instant noodles. It sold essentials like gloves too. As said earlier in the post, there are no rubbish bins around here and you are only able to throw your rubbish at the foot of the mountain when you complete your hike.
If you do not wish to spend any money here, you can bring your own food and rest at the shelter too! I bought a bowl of instant noodles and 2 chocolate bars to munch on during the hike later on. Due to demand, everyone is only entitled to 2 bowls of instant noodles! When you are purchasing the noodles, the staff will give you a plastic bag to store all your rubbish too! After answering nature's call, we headed off to the last part of our hike, which is also the worst.
Yes, the "hard" part of the trail has started and you can see how much the terrain has changed. From gently sloping with small rocks to steep slopes with chunky rocks. This part is all about your determination to reach the peak to enjoy the wonderful view. There will be a side-road which leads you to the observatory. However, we continued with the main route because we wanted to reach the peak ASAP.
THE. VIEW. IS. GORGEOUS. There will be steps along the way when it gets steeper. Remember to turn around and wait for your friends if you're leading the group! It is also a great excuse to appreciate the beautiful horizon behind you!
When you're reaching the summit, it will be the hardest for you to hike because of the endless steps and after that would be just big rocks and a simple railing in the middle. Making it challenging for hikers because the fear of falling down the mountain would set in. You will need to encourage each other here because everyone will be tired from the hike and the excruciating process of climbing the countless steep steps just before reaching the summit.
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| Only thing for you to hold on would be the ropes. Dangerous!!! |
The wind here will be rather strong and cold causing the forming of icicles on the ropes of the railings. My phone shut down because of the intense cold and I could not take any pictures of my own. Luckily, Vance's iPhone 7 survived the cold and he was able to take some pictures for us. We reached the summit at around 12:30pm!
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| Formation of icicles because of the cold! |
I left the following videos unedited to show how strong the wind at the Baekrokdam was and we were all shielding ourselves from the devastating wind while Vance took the videos. Warning: TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME!!
Baekrokdam Crater!
The other side of the mountain, the horizon and clouds!
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| Lake-filled crater (Baekrokdam) - Dried because of winter, I guess. |
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| Three Musketeers? No, you cant summon us in Clash Royale. |
When we are finished with appreciating the beauty of nature, we decided to head back down to the foot of the mountain where our car is parked. Personally, I feel that going down the mountain is harder than climbing to the top. It is because you are already tired and you need to balance yourself on the rocky surfaces so that you will not injure yourself. You will be more than happy to see planks on the trails because you can walk without worries of injuring yourself.
Nonetheless, we took the same trail back to the base of the mountain because we parked our car there. We reached around 4:30pm and our calves were extremely sore from all the hiking. Remember to do some cool down exercises if you can! We drove to SIXT to return our car and took their shuttle bus to Jeju Airport. We had our dinner at Lotteria and we rested there until it was time for our flight which was at 8:20pm.
We boarded our flight after that back to Gimpo Airport and went to Hapjeong to meet our Airbnb owner again to check in. We ordered some home delivery and ended our day after that because we were too tired to carry on with any other activities.
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