Solitude and Sweeping Views in Seoraksan Part 2.

Fast Forward half a year, it's September and I have learned to place gear and lead some trad. The excitement and sheer enjoyment of placing your own protection and running out sections becomes exhilerating and pure. Having the ability to come to a blank wall and know that you can climb it without bolts opens up practically every mountain in the world. However the only route my partners and I are focused on is Venus - A 6 pitch 10C offwidth. The same route the other crew was shutdown on last May. The 4th pitch starts out as a monster offwidth, and we didn't know what was beyond that.

We were stoked and ready to climb it free. Our battle of "FREE VENUS" rang over the trainiclimng grounds as we cruised up single pitch trad climbs. We were determined. Our group of 4 planned to hike in and camp (illegally) at the base of Ulsan Bawi for 3 nights. After crusing Venus we would try the other multipitch climbs in the area.

The time came and we made the long drive up to Soeraksan. We hiked in and prepared camp. We weren't expecting any crowds as this was Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) so may Koreans would be at home with their families. There was already a small Korean group there with their tent set up, ready to camp illegally with us. The 3 of them were also planning on climbing Venus.

The next morning when we woke and set up our gear, the Koreans were already on the 4th pitch of Venus. It was only 10 am, they were moving fast! It looked as though they would be finished by lunchtime. Our crew divided into two teams of two, and the first team set off with no issues on the first pitch. Then when our turn came, my partner led the first pitch. He was 3/4's of the way up the route and was high above his last piece of gear. when he slipped and started to fall. He took a mighty whipper as I ran down the sloped belay area to try and take out some of the slack. He slammed his side against the wall and was mentally shaken. He dusted himself off and ened up stitching the last part of the climb, and he finished.

When I sent the first pitch I was already tired. The sun was in full effect and my partner was feeling the mental effects from the fall. "You ready to lead? I don't know if I want to lead anything else today." With 5 pitches of climbing above me, with only a summer's worth of trad experience I had to really think if I was ready for the challenge. What I've found about climbing is that eventually you have to jump in the deep and hope you've learned enough to swim. After a moment of reflection I just though "Fuck it," let's hop on the sharp end and let's do it. Luckily for me the second pitch was much easier than the first. Perfect hands jams allowed me to seemlessly walk up the short 5.9. pitch. It felt wonderful placing gear and not having to mess around to much to find the right pieces to fit. I can do this.

The 3rd pitch was an incredible journey that went from face climbing, to a chimney, to a flaring fist crack. As I struggled mentally and physically to climb, the other two climbers were already at the belay station for the 4th pitch. We were going to all climb that one together as it was the hardest and longest pitch. But for now I was gasping for breath as my fists and legs slip out of the flaring crack. Every move is a struggle to move even a few inches. Sweat dripping from my hands didn't allow any chalk to stay for more than a few moves. At the anchors I just reach the rope and tell my partners "CLIP THIS FOR ME...I CANT HOLD ON!" They clipped me and I stood up, happy and tired.

Climbing the first pitch. Higher group are the Koreans about to begin the offwidth.

When we all were at the anchor the strongest in our group attempted the monster offwidth. Struggling for almost 15 minutes to enter the enormous crack, we quickly realized we were way over our heads. Here is a person who climbs 11 trad and projects 13A sport climbs unable to climb this 10C offwidth. But the Koreans are a sly bunch. Sometimes when things get hard they find a way to make it wasy and accesible. About 7 bolts littered the side of the route to make a ladder. We resorted to clipping long draws on the bolts, and aiding our way up the pitch. this seemed to work, but also seemed very exhausting. When the offwidth ends, you have about 30-35 metres of laybacking to the next anchor. Our leader decided to French-Aid the rest. French aiding, is sliding a cam up the route with you, and pulling on it in order to keep going up. The 44 meter pitch was finally conqured by our strongest climber and now all we had to do was top rope it.

Fast forward approximately 4 hours and we all successfully aided the route. We were all beaten down. Our dreams of Freeing Venus shattered! with still two more pitches and night quickly coming, we kept driving. The other group were on the last pitch when I started leading the 5th pitch. I didn't want to do it anymore but my partner wasnt going to lead and we were past the point of no return. a 60 meter rope wouldnt rappel a 44 metre route. We had to finish. I climb and the exhaustion of the day starts creeping in. I get to a section where a crack ends and slab begins. I freeze, dead in my steps. Unable to move. I have vision of me falling and all the gear ripping out as I foolishly fall to the ground over 100 metres below. I start panicking, the sun begins to set and I try yelling to my partners for help. The fear of climbing is hard to deal with at certain points. I just didn't feel like I could move without falling straight off the side. The climber above me starts to move into a position to toss me their rope. After 20 minutes of cold sweats and constant Elvis leg, i grab the rope, my sweet sweet savior, and climb the rest of the route.

We ended up finishing the climb by headlamp and rappelling in the dark. During the rappell, one of our ropes became stuck so we had to leave it, luckly it was close to the ground.

We finish as the wind starts picking up, close to freezing temps set in and my partner and I look for our tent. Unfortunately in our exhaustion we cannot remember where it is. We ended up spending a freezing cold night in a hammock with no sleeping bag or pad. A sleepless night in the cold was our punishment for not freeing Venus.

The next day we were all so tired, but we retrieved the rope stuck on the 3rd pitch, found our tents and passed out.

#RockClimbing #Korea #TradClimbing