We've enjoyed two fantastic days skiing now, and will be taking off again this coming Friday for our third, and possibly last as the weather is changing!
Our first trip was with the Schumacher family, minus Mum Kylie, a teaching family from GSIS, with one member in my grade 3 class.
Jisan resort is very close to Suwon, and is well geared towards learners. Unfortunately it attracts huge numbers of people due to it's proximity to Seoul, Suwon, and the other smaller cities surrounding Seoul. We enjoyed a half day there, and both found our ski-legs well and truly in good working condition!
looking downwards towards the resort from the top of the run - not very steep as you can see, but fun nonetheless!
There are some really efficient features at the ski fields here, one of which is the escalators they have for you to go up from the ski rental area and out to the snow - a nice touch. They also have compressed air blowers to rid your skis and boots of snow build up. Seriously. I kid you not. Another nice feature is lockable ski lockers - only need a coin, and you place your skis in and then go off and warm up at the huge brazier or have lunch at the cafe or food hall.
All in all, a nice field if you are a beginner.
This weekend we went to a more challenging field called
Konjian Resort - they offer free shuttle bus service from Seoul, with 3 different pick-up sites in Suwon. It turned out to be a bit of a mission to get the pick up sorted, but thanks to help from our lovely secretary Kate, we managed to get booked onto the shuttle and headed down to the pick up point early on Saturday morning. The unassuming spot was very chilly as the day had dawned at about -2 or so, and a slight breeze, and as you will all know, we were there miles too early due to Mike's insistance...So - we were relieved to be picked up at the designated time and in the designated spot. It took about 45 minutes to get there, passing the Jisan resort on the way there. It was quite nice to actually notice landmarks on the way that we recognized!
This field turned out to be a great find for us - the slopes were steeper but not too steep, they would rate as intermediate runs back in NZ which is where we would normally hang out. The runs were about 1 1/2 kms and had a nice range of options. This field also limits how many people can go in a day, and sells tickets for amounts of time. Quite a different way of operating, combined with a credit-card style ski pass which determines whether you can go on the lift or not. You can't argue with the machine - so no slipping onto the lift 10 minutes before 10am when our timer started!
Saturday was significantly cooler than the previous day's skiing, and we had to stay rugged up as you can see. The lifts were aptly named - lift number one was 'GALE' and it's neighbour 'WINDY'!!! It was rather cool up on the lift, and certain spots certainly did offer up a cooling breeze, but overall the day stayed clear and calm, and we had a fantastic time - managing 20 runs on the 'expert' slopes.
This shot was taken at the halfway point on the run - not too many people there, and we frequently just skied down and straight onto the lift...
The resort is quite spectacular - all fairly recently built too. Along with these ski slopes which are 'man-made' they have a spa, wine cave, conference facilities, aboretum, swimming pool and sauna etc etc. They had an interesting ice sculpture area too, and we enjoyed wandering around the stream and garden area while we waited for the bus.
Next Friday we are off on a trip to a field closer to the east coast with the seniors at school. We will have to stay the night, but it looks amazing on the website. This might be more of a mountain field - similar to what we are used to back home!
It's been wonderful - I have enjoyed skiing and have managed to get more in this year than my usual one-trip-per-year!!
