Gangwondo Hongcheun Gyebangsan Climb in Korea- Unduryeong Course

1.     Date and Time : June 12, 2018 07:30~12:30 (5 hours including break one hours).

2.     Location : Hongcheun at Gangwon Province in Korea.

3. Distance and Course : About 8.52km. Course is to start at Dururyeong Parking Lot => Mulpurae Tree Forest => Break and Rest Area => Observation Point => Gyebangsan Summit (1577.4m altitude) => Observation Point => Break and Rest Area => Mulpurae Tree Forest => back to Dururyeong Parking Lot .

4.     Access :

There is several ways to connect “Dong Seoul Bus Terminal (” by means of subway lines No. 2 at Gangbyun Station) where you should get on Intercity bus line bound for Naecheon Bus Stop, non-stop and taking one hour and 30 minutes. When you get off at the Naecheon Bus Stop, you should walk to Do Gwanri Bus Stop taking about 2 minutes for 129m distance. Please take bus bound for Seosok and get off at Soesok Bus Terminal after 20 times bus stop passing and 1 hour and 5 minutes transportation. You should change bus to local bus No 92 and get off at Changcheon Chodeung Hakgyo after 1 hour and 10 minutes transportation. You should walk to Unduryeong Parking lot taking about 6 minutes for 423m. Please refer more details to the “Transportation from Dong Seoul Bus Terminal to Hongcheun Unduryeong”. You could simply take reverse course on your way back home. But take local Bus bound for Hongcheun Bus Terminal at Palbongsan Bus Terminal at other side of the Guryeoreung Road”. I could estimate total transportation is about three hour and thirty minutes for one way which comes total 7 hours for round trip. But you would reduce this transportation time to 4 hours for round trip in case you use private car or rent car which you could save three hours for the transportation. 

5.     Overall Remarks.

Gyebangsan is located between Hongcheun and Pyungchang in Gangwon Province in Korea which is 5^th highest mountains in Korea. 1^st is Halla Mountain-1950m altitude, 2^nd Girisan Mountain-1915m altitude, 3^rd Seoraksan Mountain-1708m altitude and 4^th Deokyeusan Mountain-1624m altitude. There are many different kinds of tree and grass species at the mountain. But rare species, Royal Azalea and Yew are grown in group at some area which government nominated as a sanction. Tamarack and fir is planted at several hectors which is spectacular scenery along with several different kinds of oak trees and maple trees, especially in fall when leaves dropped with different color. You could every time see this spectacular scene at the summit or observation point. Please note Unduryeong is a highest hill which we could climb with car in Korea. That is why I choose Unduryeong as a climb starting and entrance point to Gyebangsan. This course is generally made with this principal climb cycle, first steep hill and mild and easy walking and some downhill and steep uphill and some easy walking and again steep uphill like that. Therefore we could take short break between steep uphill courses. Air at mountain is exceptionally fresh and clean and higher oxygen which you could easy in mind take maximum breathing for refreshing and recovering your mental and physical.    

6.     Detailed Course Information

As stated above Article, we could climb to Unduryeong Hill by car which is slightly more than 1,000 m altitude. I decided to start to climb Gyebangsan at this hill in order to save energy and time and started to walk up the so steep stairs from the beginning that I could not speed up the climbing as see at the photo. As I walked on this stairs and steep hills for about 15 minutes, I saw 1^st landmark saying 3.6km to the Summit. I continued to walk on Mulpurae Tree Forest (Chinese Ash) for 15 minutes and met 2^nd landmark stating as 3.3km to the Summit. There was break and rest area which we could reach after 15 minutes walking through Chinese Ash forest more from previous landmark. When I passed this landmark, I found somewhat easy walking road at ridge for a while and started to climb again steep uphill for about 20 minutes and reached landmark as 2.1km to the Summit. I found harder was higher and steeper in reference to time consuming which means the mountain was getting sharper and steeper according to time passing. While my physical strength was getting weaker and weaker depend on time consuming. I kept walking on these steep hill and sometime rock path for about 50 minutes and reached 1.3km to the Summit Landmark from previous landmark. As stated before, I was more quickly losing more energy than before after this landmark and felt harder and more difficult than before and struggled for about 20 minutes and touched Observation Point which I was surprised to see elegant and beautiful mountain scenery remotely surrounding the Gyebangsan Mountain. I made video moving around the Observation Point and took excellent view of surrounding mountain and attached herein. I found landmark stating as 1km to the Summit and kept walking on small oak tree bush for a quarter minutes and met 300m to the Summit. I finally touched Gyebangsan Summit-1577.4m altitude after a quarter minutes effort for uphill and took nice picture of top area as well as unnamed stone tower at the top of the mountain. There was landmark at the top stating as 4.1km to Unduryeong which I might bear in mind to hardly struggle for at least more than 2 hours walking down. It was simple way to come back to Unduryeong since just reversing the course through same road. I took a one photo so sharply downhill on the way down because I could not visually realized how so sharply inclined when I climbed up and took a photo. But photo did not transfer exact inclined hill, even I took a photo on the down way. I eventually back to Unduryeong Hill after 2 and half an hour hard endeavor. But I was fully satisfied to spend so hard effort against so nice scenery and fresh air that I could get well enough compensation.