7 hours, climbing up and down the Mt. Halla. Just to see Baekrokdam

7 hours, climbing up and down the Mt. Halla. Just to see Baekrokdam

 1. Currently there are only two route to get to Baekrokdam(lake), one is from Seongpanak and the other is from Gwaneumsa. Of course there were route from the other 2 points, which was closed now for reserving nature and risks. On the news, the opening this year(2018) announced but canceled.

 2. Most of people start from Seongpanak and take the route to "Gwaneumsa". But if you parked your car at Seongpanak, you have to return on the path that you took for climbing. Going up takes about 4 hours and going down about 3 hours.

 3. You'd better bring 'tissue' 'water' and 'lunch box(food)'. There are toilets on the way but not recommended(due to so many visitors... and imagine!!!).

 4. You have to get to Jindalaebat Shelter(진달래밭 대피소)까지 by 12:30 pm. After that you are not allowed to go furthur. If you start from Seongpanak from 9 am, you are going to get to the summit.

1	The highest mountain

 This is a common sense in Korea but it wasn't to me. I wasn't interested in the height of the mountains... I though Baekdu Mountain was highest... And the 2nd one was Jiri Mountain in Korea. Actually I thought climbing wasn't that hard. But it was so... hard for me... 

Location

I was so worried of the possibility not to get to the point(Jindalebat) before 12:30... and did my best to go faster... But it was an unnecessary worry. 

 

 The snow-covered mountain was not bad... but climbing was so tiring... made me hate this mountain while climbing. 

 

 This is the point where you have to get before 12:30. Jindalebat Shelter. If you got here, I can applause. It is not easy to get here. If you are not a climber or a trekking person, you feel the difficulties... so tired at this point... Many time I almost gave up going further. Climbing Halla mountain is a kind of thing I can do later easily I would gave up.. But I didn't... Yep... I took rest many times... near the summit... And the snowy path made it more hard... 

 I got there around 10:50 am... So arrived there earlier than I expected. 

2

Summit

 : Lots of people. I guess there are that amount of visitors every day... even in lower season... winter and spring... In summer, there would be more people... This is a kind of a mountain you have to come one time if you are a Korean.

 It was disappointing to see the lake like that... Snowy and frozen lake. 

 

: I finally came to see the lake with my own eyes...which I've heard so many years... Even though I didn't see a green lake, it's OK... Next time.. I will climb this in summer.

Pictures below.

 And the next ones are the shelter while climbing down... It wasn't easy to do down because the snow was melting that time...