Korea- The Other Side of Things

I love spicy food. I seek it out. What better place to challenge my palate than on the famous Korean cuisine in Seoul. “We call it chi-mac. Chicken and Macju, which is beer. It is very famous here and quite common.” Julie Te Quiero Cho tells me. “You should try the spicy ones.” My mouth was already ablaze. “These aren’t the spicy ones?” Everyone around the table laughs as Julie orders our next round of chi-mac.

As it turned out, I had arrived in Seoul during the peak of their holiest week. All week the Koreans celebrated Buddha, children and parents. Jaha picked me up from the airport and we headed straight for a Korean BBQ joint that was near my hotel in the northern district of Seoul. We ate, drank soju and beer until I thought it was impossible to put anything else in my stomach. I was wrong. We strolled down to the neighborhood bar and drank a few more beers. Surrounded by the vivacious friends of Jaha, I told him thanks for inviting me and for putting this all together. It felt special. “We do this once or twice a week.” he told me. “It is the time for us to unwind and talk”.

I had been invited to go to Korea to work with The Ja’s on a video project to capture the climbing scene. That would be Jaha, Jabee, and Jain Kim. All three world class climbers and joint gym owners in Gangnam, the posh area of Seoul. Working with Jain specifically in Korea is very interesting. She is a super star there. She is on billboards, magazine covers and in car commercials. Walking down the street with her is sometimes difficult due to the number of people that recognize her and want her autograph. But of course Jain is the consummate professional and handles everything perfectly. She tells me “I am very happy that I help make climbing popular in Korea.” It’s true. She and her brothers are making climbing more popular in Korea. I only visited for a week, but could see very clearly how they are taking a leading role in competitive and gym climbing around Korea.

Over the next week, we would visit two different climbing areas, one in the south 4 hours by car and the other a short 10 minutes from Seoul, technically still in Seoul. What struck me the most from my visit was how close the climbing community in Korea is. All of the people that we encountered were very nice, warm and invited me to join whatever they were currently engaged in. I was only there a short time, but I felt immediately accepted into the fold. This is common around the world for climbers, but it seems more difficult for foreigners in Asia. Maybe its the language barrier that makes us more vulnerable and susceptible to this idea, but in actuality 99.9% of the people I have come in contact with are amazing and willing to help as much as they can.

If you plan to go to Korea make sure to bring your climbing shoes, because there is an entire scene waiting to be unlocked and explored! For additional info contact The Ja’s and also check out the KOTR.

Go Climb Something!!!!