Opera House

There were sheets of rain falling on the ROK this weekend. I woke up at 6:20 Saturday morning to huge rain drops pitter pattering on my air conditioning unit. I packed up the rest of my gear and set out in the rain, to catch the bus and meet up with the other members of the climbing club. I saw the 6638 roll by and cursed out loud. Once I got to the bus stop I made the choice to walk down to the main intersection where I had more options to catch a bus to the climbing wall and meeting point. I was already running a little late when I saw the 22,the bus that takes me directly there and another bus I could tranfer from roll by. My pants were completely wet by the time I got to the corner but luckily the 12 rolled in about a minute after I got there. Maybe I would make it just on time.

I got off the bus and walked to where I thought we were meeting but I didn't see anyone there. On the last trip we had chartered a bus and met in the parking lot by the gym. I walked through the parking lot towards the climbing wall but still didn't see anyone. Then I got smart and checked my phone - two missed calls. I called the older woman known to me as older bread sister because she always brings some sort of pastry to the wall as a snack. The only thing I understood in her say was climbing center because she said it in English. When I got there there were five people standing under the overhung artificial wall to keep out of the rain. That's why there was no bus, it was only the six of us.

We (I mean they) quickly decided to go to Opera House to climb. I read about Opera House on the Korea On The Rocks website and heard it stayed dry in the rain but wasn't so sure about staying dry in a thunderstorm. It took us about five hours to drive down there cause we overshot and had to backtrack. The weather alternated between rain, heavy rain, what looked like a brewing tornado and clear blue skies. It seemed like the highway was the border between ominous gray clouds and this beautiful blue sky. I think we were in the eye of the storm at that point.

We rolled into Maisan park just in time to hear a huge clap of thunder and get caught in a downpour. We strapped on our backpacks and headed up the hill. Thankfully the hike was short but at the top of the hill we had to deal with class three scramble. Yay, wet mossy rocks and semi-muddy shoes. Adventure time! Fortunately the scramble was uneventful and all reached the top in one piece. Soon afterwards we reached the crag. It was strange walking past the roof of the crag and into the overhang where everything was dry. There was already another group there climbing away.

We unpacked our gear and I had the pleasure of warming up on a pumpy 10c. Needless to say I didn't onsight. I took once before finishing the climb. After a bit of rest I onsighted a 10b and the guys were getting me pumped up for my project, Maisan Tango. It's an overhung 11b with huge moves, especially for me. My first run on it went well until I hit the crux and bailed. I couldn't get back on the wall because it was so overhung and had to come down. My second run was a bit of an improvement because I hit the crux move, but still wasn't feeling confident because I hung from the rope before the crux, after the crux and felt like I did the move horribly. I finished the route and came down.

I saw someone send Maisan Tango before my third try and got pumped up for it. Everything was feeling good and I was dialed in. I knew where the holds were, where to rest and was pretty focused. I hit the crux move with relative ease and clipped into the quickdraw. After that things got a bit hairy. I lost my concentration, got confused whether or not I wanted three or four fingers in the pocket, went too deep into it and forgot where my feet needed to be. I lost my grip on the final hold and peeled off. It was getting close to the end of the day and I wasn't sure how much more I had in me.

After a shorter rest than I wanted I went for it, this time more determined, and feeling the moves more than knowing them. I hit the crux move and skipped clipping into the last quickdraw. It would've been a clean fall but falling the last thing on my mind. I gastoned the final pocket, made sure my fingers didn't drift too far in, hit the last move then hung the rope. Woo!!! The next day I did it again, better and cleaner than the previous day. I even clipped the last quickdraw. On the drive home I was trying to think of the last time I sent an 11b. Man, the last time. It was most likely when I was in Thailand. Feels like a lifetime ago.

Mud Festival '08

Just came back from the 10th annual Mud Festival in Boryeong. Tom, Katy and I took the KTX train from Yongsan station in Seoul. It took about three hours to get down there. We met up with a large group of people we shared a room with. The group was supposed to be about 35 people in a minbak, a Korean room without beds. It was basic cheap and did it's job. The place was right around the corner from the beach and in the middle of the muddiness.

Once we arrived I changed into my shorts and the three of us walked up and down the main strip checking things out. There was a huge air slide, mud prison, mud wrestling, mud people and, well mud in general. There was no nakedness that I saw, but lots of skin showing and lots of eye candy. We had lunch at a galbi (ribs) restaurant where Katy and I ahd our first beer of the day. After lunch Tom ran off to do some stuff with Adventure Korea - a tour group Tom's been on a lot of tours with. Katy and I walked along the strip then decided it was better to go jump in the water for a while. We got covered in mud after that and watched a band comprised of about ten military guys rocking out on the stage. Just before their last song we jumped back into the water to rinse off.

After that it was a series of more beer, each of us running into people we knew, finding the group we were sharing the room with, then meeting up with Tom. We got muddy again, this time with Tom, then went back and chilled with the group on the beach. When the sun started to set we went back to the room to change then set out for dinner. Katy, Tom and I were joined by Tom's brother, Anthony and his girlfriend, Amy. We found the foreigner restaurant but heard nothing but bad things about it. We walked for a while and found nothing but seafood restaurants. We were a bit weary about eating there because of the apparent low quality of the fish and the food prep being sketchy at best. We decided to head back to the galbi place but it took us a while cause Tom's a well known guy (We stopped a lot so Tom could talk to people. Since he is leaving Korea in a month we gave him a pass.)

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By the time we rolled into the restaurant they were completely packed and it would have taken us a while to get a table. We walked along the main strip but had no luck finding a good restaurant that wasn't packed. We even tried the pizza place but the wait on a pizza was horrendous. We found the other restaurant that had pizza and samgyapsal (basically really fatty pork. The direct translation is three layers of fat). Turns out they were out of samgyapsal. We were desperate and hungry so we ordered two pajeon (Korean pizza but not really pizza) and Katy had ramen. And we got a bottle of soju to calm everyone down. Soju and food went quickly and we got out of there and met up on the beach for fireworks.

The collective group had no idea about what time the firesworks started. Usually firworks start when it gets dark. It had been dark for a while and no signs of fireworks. Then we thought 10pm. Beers and beers later still no fireworks. There was talking and talking with people I didn't know from the group and a girl from the room telling people I was her future husband (jokingly, I think) then said girl and I innocently laying down in the sand for a while. That's as far as that got. In hindsight. COOL! I'm glad it didn't go any further. My bladded was ready to burst so I went to the toilet and what do you know. The fireworks start going off.

It was a good show. The fireworks made the sea light up in reds, blues, purples and greens. The finally was spectacular and everyone felt it wa a great way to end a mud filled day.