Meet and Greet Greatness

Middle of October was the fall Korea On the Rocks Meet and Greet. Climbers from all over Korea get together, climb, drink, and have wild shenanigans.

I opted to not bring Luna because it was supposed to rain and rain with a dog in a small tent...not so much fun. Boy am I glad I didn't bring her.

I got in Friday night and set up my sweet 10,000 won two-man tent. I kinda had a ground mat/beach mat but it didn't cover the entire bottom of the tent, oh well right. Haha, I don't think it would have made much of a difference. So we were told a huge storm was going to be coming through at midnight. At 12:30 am it was still clear skies. Everyone decided on bed time. I don't sleep well outside anyways but the tent was a bit to short for me, even laying cross corner I touched both walls. Rule number one of tents, if you want it dry don't let it touch the walls. Fetal position it was. That's when the wind picked up, the lightning started and the rain fell. Ok so that kinda stunk, but my tent was holding up against the gail force winds. I then realized it was brighter in my tent then it was a second ago... I looked out my screen window (with the rain fly on I can not see outside) and saw everything. The wind had undone my steaks and my fly was hanging on by one steak. Choices: 1)wait it out and hope that it (rain/wind) stops soon 2) get out and put my fly back on and re-steak it so that everything in my tent stays dry 3)wait what will hold my tent down if i'm not in it and there is only one steak still in the ground....my pack (everything went back in my pack and the rain fly for my pack went on and went to the corner of the tent being dominated by the wind) 4) should i put my pants back on, it's cold but then they will be wet?

Whatever... the pants went on but didn't get buttoned so were falling down as I was running around my tent trying to steak the tent down again and untangle the fly to put it back on. Another guy was running around in his underwear ( i should have done that, i would have dry pants) steaking his tent down better and putting rocks on the steaks. Another guy got out and helped me get my fly straightened out and steaked back down. Great times!!!

Woke up in a lake...if you didn't know, down sleeping bags do nothing if wet...no worries, after i wrung it out I got up and had some coffee. It rained most of the morning off and on so everytime it would be blue skies everyone would put all their stuff on the line to dry...as soon as everything was out it would start raining again. My bag ended up in a minbak with heated floors so it dried nicely.

The climbing was amazing, the view amazing, the people amazing, and everything else also. Ganhyeon has been by far my favorite place. After/before dinner the drinking began. We soon moved to a bonfire by the river with a ukulele, singers, and apparently football player wannabes. I was tackled 7 or 8 times by a friend. Got up early the next morning to make sure everyone had followed through on their leave no trace. Nope...you could probably imagine how much waste (bottles, cans, cigarette butts, and other randomness) 25-30 some people can produce.

Finished off Sunday's climbing with some great leads (I don't like lead climbing but the leads here were so much fun and just overall great climbs). Then a large group of us headed out. Jan and I were heading to Busan together. Got some lunch in the station and some dang coffee that just turned out to be a bigger pain that it was worth. Got on the bus just in time.

About 30 minutes down the road...WHAT WAS THAT?!?! (Jan and I looking at each other) I'm going to laugh if it was a tire...haha, sure was but no worries we weren't going to lose any time...the bus driver is going to continue at the same speed (passing people) Korean passenger "ㅣㅏㅓㄴㅇ먀ㅏㄷ김츠ㅜㅊ능롸" Bus driver : " ㅓ추ㅕㅑ랴ㅓㅜ주쳧녀챠ㅕㅑㅊ녀ㅛ쳐" Korean passenger: " ㄷ추ㅡㅜㄷ유운듀ㅜㅠㄴ유ㅏ" I'm pretty sure that it translate to something along the lines of KP "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" BD "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT...ONLY 3 MORE HOURS" KP: "YOU BETTER PULL THIS BUS OVER NOW OR ELSE..." the bus pulled over and three men got off the bus to look at the damage... got back on and continued...WHAT WAS THAT?!?! (Jan and I looking at eachother laughing from fear) Me: "English? Little English?" Korean woman: "Flat tire"...duh, but why are we still driving

Finally (10 mintues after the first stop and 5 minutes after the second stop) we got to a rest area. Korean woman "We wait for engineer to fix tire" Jan and I "Engineer? Really?" I guess they don't have the word mechanic.

Back on the bus 2 hours later. Offered an older korean woman (adjumma) sitting behind us some crackers. I was expecting her to take like 5 or 6 and then hand the rest back to me, so I waited. After she continued to consume my crackers I turned back around with a straight face. Jan look at me and asked if she took any. I said yeah... she asked me how many...i said "ALL" with a straight face and even tone...Jan looked back at the woman who was still so joyfully eating my crackers, looked at me and we both started laughing.

The people who had left on the a different bus and hour or so later than us got back before us...doesn't always pay to get the earlier bus...haha, still a great weekend

Sorry no pictures, I'll have to get some from people because I left my camera at home :(