The first time I stood on a pair of skis I was so young I can’t even remember it anymore. During the next 25-ish years I went skiing or snowboarding at least one week every winter. Nowadays I live in a tropical country so I don’t get much chance, but every once in a while I get a strong itch to hit the slopes. The only way to cure it is to go on vacation to a ski resort. At the beginning of this winter I started feeling that itch again. As I was planning were to go, the question in the title popped into my head, so I decided to find out.
My wife and kid are not as avid snowboarders as I am (at least not yet) so instead of rushing to the ski resort as soon as we landed, we spent the first evening, as well as the next morning, in Seoul. Most of that time was spent just looking around in the area around Dongdaemun (the old eastern city gate) and loading up on snacks and drinks for the rest of the trip.
The Dongdaemun Design Plaza looks very futuristic
This big market building was almost completely closed (possibly deserted?) except for this bookstore overloaded with books.
Since I’d never been skiing in Korea before, I had to do a bit of homework before deciding which resort to go to. After a couple of hours of Googling I realized that whichever site or blog I checked, the top ten resorts in Korea were always the same. I figured that Yongpyong, which is one of the biggest, and by several accounts also the best, would suite us well. I suppose that most other resorts in Korea are smaller but otherwise not too different. There are various buses and shuttles to Yongpyong, but because of our stop in Seoul I figured it would be more practical to rent a car, especially with a small kid and two big suitcases.
When we set off from Seoul it was freezing cold but not a single flake of snow in sight. Not the best conditions for a ski trip but I expected to see more snow as we got closer to the slope. I was therefore very surprised as we drove into the mountains but only saw occasional patches of snow. I admit I was a little bit afraid we wouldn’t be able to do any skiing, but happily I was wrong about that. I later talked to a couple of Koreans who both claimed that the lack of snow is quite normal, and that Yongpyong relies on artifical snow to keep the slopes running. I got the impression that this is also the case for many other resorts.
We spent our first day in Yongpyong playing in the snow and letting our son try snowboarding for the first time in his life. He managed to stand up within the first couple of minutes which is impressive for a complete beginner – a very promising start. More importantly, he enjoyed it enough to want to continue, so we signed him up for the some classes.
The next morning Jonathan had his first snowboard lesson, which meant that my wife could go practice on her own, while I got a chance to go ride some of the more interesting slopes. The longest slope, called Rainbow Paradise, zigzags its way from the peak of Balwangsan all the way down to the parking lot and is several kilometers long. It’s not particularly challenging but very fun all the same. The three Rainbow slopes are steeper but shorter, and also lots of fun.
That afternoon the three of us took the gondola all the way to the peak for a bit of high altitude sightseeing. Up there it felt more like real winter with frost on the branches and snowflakes swirling in the breeze. Of course I took the chance to ride down on my board, while they took the gondola.
Our third day in the slopes started with snowboard class for Jonathan, so the wife and I were once again free to go riding as we pleased. While she practiced in the lower slopes, I headed back up to the Rainbow slopes.
Of course, I couldn’t spend all my time riding the advanced slopes. Every day I made sure to spend some time playing with/teaching my son, and occasionally checking on my wife’s progress. I think both of them did well.
My son can stand up on the board, but didn’t quite get the hang of stopping yet.
One thing which is special about Korea is that most of the ski resorts have night skiing that goes on until ten or even eleven pm. This let’s you make the most of your stay; of course I couldn’t miss this opportunity.
For our last day in Yongpyong, we had originally planned that my wife would take our son somewhere while I hit the slopes, so I could thoroughly scratch that snowboarding itch. To our pleasant surprise, Jonathan insisted he also wanted to go to the slopes (have I perhaps spread the snowboarding virus to him?) so we changed our plan a bit. We spent the morning taking turns to teach him, then in the afternoon, my wife let him play in the snow while I hit the slopes hard, so I could squeeze out every last drop of snowboarding fun before my lift pass expired.
Time then, to answer that question that I started this post with, what is it like to go skiing in Korea? The biggest difference between Korea and any other slope I’ve ever been to is the lack of snow. Of course it can vary from year to year and slope to slope, but like I said before, what we experienced seems to be the normal state of affairs. This is not ideal for a powder hunter like me, but on the other hand the slopes were always well maintained throughout the day. I suppose the Koreans find it necessary to take good care of what little snow that they have.
The overall feeling of the resort – and remember, this was one of the biggest in Korea – was that of a medium sized one in Europe: except for a restaurant at the top of the gondola, the facilities at the slopes were limited to one central location with a couple of hotels, a food court, a rental shop, and a ski school. Other hotels, restaurants, equipment shops etc. are located in the village a couple of kilometers away. In essence, if you don’t get a room right at the slope, renting a car is advisable. Except for the facilities, other aspects also put me in mind of a medium sized European resort: unlike Japanese resort which are crawling with tourists, most of the people in the slopes are locals; the service staff speak some English, enough for you to get around, but no more; they have yet to optimize things like, ski pass purchases and lift queues; there is a distinct lack of road signs in the slopes, meaning the system is small enough that you almost cannot get lost. An interesting thing I noted, is that most people in Yongpyong were skiing, snowboarders were a bit of a rarity.
The last aspect I want to discuss is the cost. The hotel was quite affordable, especially considering that we booked a delux family room. The gear we rented was kind of low quality – though good enough – but the price was low as well. Food in the slopes was pretty cheap, especially compared with Europe. To my surprise, given the size of the resort, the lift passes were quite expensive. Nothing crazy, just higher prices than I expected. I guess it has to do with the fact that they need to make a lot of artificial snow, and constantly keep the slopes maintained.
Since I hadn’t been snowboarding for several years, I did enjoy my time in Yongpyong, but due to the lack of natural snow, I don’t think I can recommend going to Korea with the express purpose of skiing – Japan is much more suitable for that. If you are already in the country however – and I think there are plenty of good reasons to go – the ski slopes are really not bad. Personally I’m happy with the experience, it will be another couple of years before that itch to hit the slopes becomes too bad again.
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