Archive for December, 2006

High1 Skijang

Nine days ago High1, the ski resort down the street, had it’s “Grand Open,” as they call such things here. It looks very promising, although up to Thursday, the last day I went, they only had two runs and two lifts open. The place is all brand new and very, well, shiny.

Here are some quick stats from the site (in case you didn’t go and read the Korean yourself): within its 5 square kilometers are 18 runs that, stretched end-to-end, make 21km. Raising you a maximum of 681 meters are 3 gondolas, 5 lifts, 11 conveyor belts(!), and 1 T-bar. They have two big lodge/condo complexes, descriptively called “Valley” and “Mountain” (I’m not translating, they’re named in English).

Valley.

The “High1 Country Club”, which was until but two weeks ago called the “KangwonLand Golftel”, is as well connected by gondola.


Gondola cables down to the KangwonLand Golftel cum High1 C.C.

The KangwonLand casino and hotel is just down from the Mountain lodge, but is not actually connected by any sort of cable-based transport.


KangwonLand Hotel and Casino

Topping it all off, they have two reservoirs to supply their 691 snow machines. And, last but not least, a rotating restaurant at the very top of it all, of which I neglected to get a close up picture. It can be seen from afar, unfinished back in October, here.

Check out this silly little flash-based slope map and notice that the lift names are a bit of a multiple choice “which one does not belong”… however, since that is more cartoony than useful, I have digitally remastered this picture of a faded, outdoor hiking trail map which includes the ski resort on it.


(This took me longer than I want to admit, but really it was an excuse to start learning how to use The Gimp which I must say is one of the more impressive free programs out there…)

As I type this very moment it is beautifully snowing like crazy, yet I am not snowboarding! Why, might you ask? Well, opening week was free, so not having my season pass yet was no problem. It is no long opening week and no longer free, and since I really should have a season pass, I don’t want to pay! I bought a season pass in September. Later, I learned that Gohan Elementary School is starting a ski team (ski team in name but everyone on the team will snowboard). I though it sounded like great fun to help coach, and so offered. Not asking to be paid, they were perfectly happy to take me on as assistant coach, and offered me a free season pass. At first I thought that this was very nice, but having already paid for one it was a missed opportunity, until the ticket office told me I could transfer the one I bought to my friend Mike, which I proceeded to do. Unfortunately I am now at the mercy of Koreans to do something involving large groups of people, namely provide all the passes for team and staff of the school. This is apparently a bad thing, and the reason why neither I nor the ski team yet have our passes!

Bah.


These kids should be just about ready if the Winter Olympics come to Gangwon Province in 2014.

[UPDATE 7/5/07: Korea lost their bid to Russia. Sucks.]

There are lots of pics from my first snowboarding visit to High1 here, as well as some pictures of last week’s demonstration class in this little town six hours away and our little tour of a piece of the near-by DMZ – which is another blog post entirely and these damnable things take me too long to write!