We had the most wonderful 3 days skiing at High1 during Lunar break in February 2013, that it made me want to dedicate a page to skiing here in Korea.
There are many fields, but the general rule of thumb is that the higher fields with longer runs are found over on the eastern side, which makes for a longer drive, but well worth the effort.
The first field we visited here was Jisan Forest Park with a family from school. It is very close to Suwon, only about a 40 minute drive, but it is a fairly small ski hill with limited runs if you already know how to ski. Great for learners though, and nice to have a place close by.
I love this giant fire place! A great spot to eat your lunch if you can get a seat....
Jisan is quite a pleasant field, but can get pretty crowded.
The next local field we visited was Konjiam, which was a good step up from Jisan for skiers, with longer runs with better range of difficulty. Nothing really challenging for experts, but pleasant for a day for those who are intermediate or advanced skiers, and also great for beginners. It also has a sledding slope which we took some friends' kids to for their first snow field experience. Great fun - and with a magic carpet ride back up to the top of the slope too.
The other convenient thing is that Konjiam runs a shuttle bus - free - that you can pick up in Suwon. What a great service! We've since discovered, thanks to our Korean-speaking TA, that most fields offer shuttle bus service, some free, some not. Some have package deals that include the shuttle bus as well as the lift pass and ski equipment hire, so it is worth asking a Korean person to help you to find this out. Some bookings need to be made over the phone, which can be tricky if you don't speak the language, so having someone to help becomes essential...
Konjiam has quite a number of hotels, condos etc, and has some impressive gardens, walkways, and this interesting ice sculpture area. It caters well for weekenders with some nice restaurants and even has a swimming pool and spa area. Nice!
We were keen to keep trying out different fields whenever we could - so when the opportunity came to join the High School trip to Yongpyong we jumped at the chance! This is the field that is going to host the 2018 winter olympics, and this year hosted the special olympics in February. It is a much more extensive field with lots of options for all levels of ski-ing ability. Some runs are quite long, and finally we found that the black diamond runs were actually reasonably challenging! First time in a gondola on a ski-field for us, which was a very pleasant way to get up to the top of a mountain. The facilities here are impressive as would be expected from a place vying for the Olympics, but we struck an overcast day so missed out on seeing the views from the highest point. Next time, maybe!
Pheonix Park Ski Resort was our next port of call, and we were excited to get an amazing shuttle bus, ski hire and lift pass deal which was 48% off - and picked up and dropped off from Yeongtong, really close to home for us. As long as you can handle being up early to catch the bus at 6.10am (bang on too, it leaves then, so you need to be there!!) you'll be there in about 2 hours and by the time you sort out the skis and tickets you can be skiing by 9am. We found this field to have a good range of slopes, but struck a day where it was pretty icy in places and I found myself hitting the deck more than usual so I came home bearing a few bruises....!
There are many fields, but the general rule of thumb is that the higher fields with longer runs are found over on the eastern side, which makes for a longer drive, but well worth the effort.
The first field we visited here was Jisan Forest Park with a family from school. It is very close to Suwon, only about a 40 minute drive, but it is a fairly small ski hill with limited runs if you already know how to ski. Great for learners though, and nice to have a place close by.
The next local field we visited was Konjiam, which was a good step up from Jisan for skiers, with longer runs with better range of difficulty. Nothing really challenging for experts, but pleasant for a day for those who are intermediate or advanced skiers, and also great for beginners. It also has a sledding slope which we took some friends' kids to for their first snow field experience. Great fun - and with a magic carpet ride back up to the top of the slope too.
The other convenient thing is that Konjiam runs a shuttle bus - free - that you can pick up in Suwon. What a great service! We've since discovered, thanks to our Korean-speaking TA, that most fields offer shuttle bus service, some free, some not. Some have package deals that include the shuttle bus as well as the lift pass and ski equipment hire, so it is worth asking a Korean person to help you to find this out. Some bookings need to be made over the phone, which can be tricky if you don't speak the language, so having someone to help becomes essential...
Mont Blanc run - the pick of the runs on this field...
Stunning views from up the top, with a wind farm on the horizon keeping it green?!!
There'd certainly been a lot of snow...!!
Pheonix Park is another field with a gondola to bring you up to the top of the mountain, so that was nice on a cold day. We found it pretty chilly on the chairlift at times, but as you can tell by the photos, it was overcast, cold, and ended up snowing heavily by about 4.30pm.
Lunar break allowed us a chance to go a bit further afield, so we booked into a cheap and cheerful hotel and headed off to High1. This field is our favourite so far - there are a good number of runs aimed at advanced skiers, and the field is wide so you can get away from the crowded areas even on a busy day. There are several lift options, gondolas take you to several points where you can get off and then use the chairlifts to ski on those slopes. Our favourite area ended up being Victoria, but Apollo and Hera were also fun to ski. Beautiful snow, fantastic conditions and sunny weather made for a great 3 days. We loved it!
The view from the top
Korea loves statues..!
On the Victoria run, looking across at Hera to the left and Apollo runs to the right...
Loving these gondolas!!
My favourite run - Victoria
There are numerous facilities here, all sorts of levels of accommodation, and we decided to stay somewhere cheap and cheerful which was walking distance - 10 minutes to the ticket booth, and right beside a ski hire place and a Korean galbi restaurant. The deal we found with the ski hire place ended up being brilliant, and saved us quite a bit of money. You get a coupon from them if you hire skis, you take the coupon up to the ski ticket counter, hand it over, and away you go. Saved us about $100 per day doing it that way!
We hope to ski again before this season is over, as it might be some time before we get to ski in Korea again. Who knows?!
We hope you enjoyed this blog page - give us some feedback especially if you've been to a field you'd recommend. We don't call ourselves experts, but we are advanced skiers - advanced in years, at least!
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