There's been a lot of climbing going on as the weather has been really nice lately. About a week ago the international climbing competition came here to Mokpo along with a bunch of professionals from Korea, Japan, China, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and even India. It was a pretty cool showcase of some badass sport climbing on an insanely steep (60* overhang?) route. I was lucky enough to see the number one woman's division climber in the world (a korean) who destroyed the route with ease and even stopped near the top to wave for the crowd and got to see the number one man's division climber of Korea who also flew up the men's route without a hindrance.
Women's route left and Men's route right.
This lady from Japan was the first to make it through the first crux, but fell shortly after.
Another Japanese female who almost took the lead in the event with this attempt.
Two days after that I was back in the gym working on my own project again. A pretty fun 5.10(?) route up a slight overhang and past a little roof devoid of easy foot placements. I still haven't gotten it yet, but now it seems slightly more manageable.
Easily the sketchiest clip I've ever done. They extended the draw so it hangs about 3 feet behind you.
Two big jugs side by side with decent foot holds to rest on.
All smearing on the push to the two crimpers and while clipping in.
A decent tow hook to use while bringing up your feet past the overhang.
With both feet up you can squat on the jugs and rest before the final 15' of crimpers.
After working on that project a couple times I decided to take a break to explore outside endeavors. I hit up a website called KoreaOnTheRocks.com and looked up some local routes here in Mokpo. Turns out that there are some pretty amazing crags on our local mountain: Yudalsan. We started out on Kokkiri Bawi which was a nice face climbing area behind some local farms that overlook the endless islands and ocean that surrounds Mokpo. I went up a pretty cool 5.9 called "With Sunrise" which consisted of sparse 1-2 finger pockets and shallow bowl smears. It was like sticking my fingers inside holes made out of razors.
Stacked rock piles in front of the crag.
Gratuitous shot of the sunset sky over the farms and bay.
Just yesterday Chris and I went out to a new crag called "Iron Palms." It was also on Yudalsan, but we had to go through spider infested jungle (seriously) to get to the crag. It looked like it hadn't been used in years, but the hardware was in good shape and the climbs looked good. I went up some unnamed 5.9 route, but got stopped just short of the top anchor due to what I assume was a broken off hold. There was a big scar right next to a bolt and the rock was polished all around, there was no way up the last 10 feet unless you jumped the entire way. Instead I traversed a little to the left and set up an anchor and toprope on an unnamed 5.8 route and came down. Chris tried it but was too short for the crux. I went up after him and was able to pull it off (while almost getting myself stuck in a strange rockfall chute that I arm-barred inside).
Right after this spot, the trail disappeared and we were in waist high brush and vines.
Got quite lost at one point, but found some offering caves for local shamanic religions. Some still had ashes in them from the last offering.
Chris stuck on the crux of the 5.8. The little pockets along the top of the bowl is where you had to climb while stemming the walls of the bowl until you got high enough to go through that tiny chute. The bowl he's in was about 4' deep 5' wide and 10' tall. You also can't tell from the picture that the tiny chute is actually back from the wall quite a bit, so it is an overhanging crux move.
Well that's it for now, I'll see you again after my next adventure!
