Seoulscapade

This is a view from the balcony of the condo Sunah and I stayed in at the ski resort of Yong Pyong over Xmas of 2004. The resort is near the peninsula’s east coast about 4 hours from Seoul. We arrive just before Xmas and had a day and a night on crowd-free slopes. This meant that we rarely had to wait long for ski lifts and there was plenty of room for loosing control.

I knew nothing about snowboarding but Sunah had been a few times before. She gave me some beginners lessons and I got the hang of it pretty quick. Without the crowds, we both got in plenty of practice.

Of course, by Xmas day the crowds had descended. Long waits for the ski lifts and people getting in your way made it less fun. If I ever go again, I’ll definitely avoid vacation days. Here’s a view from one of the slopes back down to our condo. You can see how open and unimpeded things were.

At night, they turn on the lights and you can stay out there into the early morning. We snowboarded for a while at night, but it was a bit precarious because patches of ice couldn’t be spotted easily. I hit one of these and the board went out from under me. I fell back and went down hard, my head slamming into the ice and bouncing, giving me that sickly feeling you get. I thought I might have done some real damage. I must have thick skull because I continued to function normally. I did, however, quit the slopes soon after that blow.