For the longest time, climbing a mountain has been at the top of my Korea to-do list. I didn’t get to do it in the summer of 2017 – it was also not a great idea considering how hot it was. However, we made special plans to go hike Bukhansan in the spring of 2019!

Let me preface this post by saying that we went in absolutely unprepared. We had not done any research on what it takes to climb to the peak, what trails were available, or even dressed properly to hike. This explains why we made a lot of mistakes, got lost, and made our time on Bukhansan 10x harder than it should be.

Our first mistake was setting off late. We took our time to eat breakfast and then travel to Bukhansan, which was slightly out of Seoul. We reached the entrance at 10.40AM (based on time stamp). By then all the ajumma and ahjussi hikers had DESCENDED and were leaving the park!

Our second mistake was buying a bottle of soju and carrying it all the way up. Yes, we did precisely that because we heard that it’s a tradition to drink soju at the peak. We ended up drinking not a single sip.

Our third mistake started right when we were choosing our hiking course.

We looked at this route and thought this was great. It fit nicely into our day’s itinerary so we didn’t need to spend too long, and was of mid-difficulty so we would probably be safe. Or so we thought.

The initial hike was mostly flat land, nothing tedious, which made us quite happy.

Some rocky terrain appeared, which was still okay by far.

A long series of stairs appeared, and that was when it (ironically) started going downhill.

There were some landmarks along the way, such as memorial tablets and the Yeongchwisa Temple. We didn’t spend much time here because it was getting hot, so we mostly just paused to take a short water break.

About 1 hour into the hike we reached what we believed was the mid-point. But actually we have no idea whether it is true. It was nonetheless a very good photo spot.

At this point I started to seriously regret bringing a tote bag and wearing my lousiest pair of sport shoes. The tote bag kept slipping off my shoulder and my shoes had literally zero grip. It took massive effort to make sure my bag and myself didn’t slip off Bukhansan.

At 1pm, 2.5 hours into our hike, we finally reached Daeseongmun. It was blazing hot and we realised belatedly that we must have taken the wrong route. Our original route should take us 2.5 hours to and for, but in that same duration we had only reached half the distance!

Nevertheless the view here was superb. We stopped here to take photos and eat the gimbap we had packed in our bags for lunch.

There’s a very cute cat at this stop! Initially we were quite tickled by its presence but it soon grew to horror when we realised that it had only one goal: to eat our kimbap.

After lunch, we started trying to figure out how to get down. Things got so bad that I have no photos at all because it was a real struggle to descend.

We found a different route which we thought might be faster, and then we realised it was because it was SO steep. It was all rocks, and our knees hurt so bad trying to go down the steep rocky terrain. It didn’t help as well that it rained the night before so everything (rocks, leaf foliage) was slippery.

I honestly have no photos and no records of what time we made it down. Based on records of where we went afterwards (Hangang River at 5.42PM) I would say around 4PM? So in total we took a grand total of 6 HOURS going up and down Bukhansan. And this wasn’t even the highest peak.

I said I would never do this again in my entire life, but as my friends teased, I would probably just say that and try it again the next time, lol. I’m not sure if it’s in my books anytime soon, but these are the lessons we learned and thought were useful to share:

• Dress appropriately. Never carry a tote bag or wear no-grip shoes unless you want to make your hike extremely difficult.
• Don’t carry soju bottles up. They’re heavy and you don’t really want to get drunk up there – makes it difficult to walk back down safely.
• Start early. Getting caught at the peak when it’s the hottest is doing a disservice to yourself.
• Research on your trail and STICK TO IT.

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DIRECTIONS

【Bukhansanseong Park Information Center】

To reach the highest Baegundae Peak / Scenic valley & main road easy loop trail:

Gupabal Station 구파발역 (line 3, exit 1). U-turn upon exit. The bus stop is about 20m ahead. Take Bus 34/704/8772 and get off at Bukhansanseong (Fortress) 북한산성 (about 17 mins) bus stop. All of the stops are announced in English. After alighting the bus, walk in the same direction as the bus, turn right at the first junction and follow the road all the way to Bukhansanseong Park Information Center (park’s entrance).

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