Can Non-Koreans Really Reserve Shelters?

[isipau]

Just wondering if any non-Koreans out there have successfully reserved mountain shelters in any of Korea's parks, without the assistance of a Korean friend. I've found the process frustrating at best and infuriating at worst, with different representatives of the park service giving contradictory information. The official KNPS website recently posted a new English page for reservations, which is well-organized and has clear instructions. Seems simple enough. Unfortunately, I've filled out and submitted the form several times and never recieved a response. I've also emailed the address that is listed and also not gotten a reply. When calling on the phone, the person we spoke to said foreigners were "prohibited" from reserving shelters and a Korean national I.D. is required to log into the reservation system. So why bother putting up an English page with instructions that don't work??:doh:

Please, if someone has helpful info, please respond.

[firepink]

i tried to use that reservation system, and i think it's a dead form. I had a korean friend call to confirm my reservations, and they didn't seem to have any record of my reservation. They told my friend I needed to make reservations online. I didn't try again, because it was so close to chuseok and i was a bit annoyed and it looked like it was going to be raining the whole time anyway... but i'm wondering if just e-mailing the proper park office would work. e-mail addresses can be found here: http://npa.or.kr/eng/vnp/vnp_main.htm

if you try it, let us know how it goes :)

[isipau]

Yeah, Firepink, http://npa.or.kr/eng/vnp/vnp_main.htm is a really old page that hasn't been updated for almost 8 years. Most of those email addresses are no longer valid or they aren't being monitored by anyone. The phone numbers aren't right either. We did track down the right number after some work. My Korean friend called it and was told that it is impossible for foreigners to reserve shelters. I found this dubious. I've heard of foreigners reserving shelter space before, but no one seems to be able to tell me how to do it.

Have you looked at http://english.knps.or.kr/knps_eng/parks/reservation_02.asp on the new and improved KNPS site? This is the one I've submitted through, to no avail.

[firepink]

Yeah, that second website is what i used to try to reserve shelters. I don't think it works.

[firepink]

For the record, I have a friend that was planning on trekking through Jiri-san over Chuseok with a tent, but he went for the shelters when he got there due to the rain. He didn't have any problems staying in the shelters without a reservation.

[ogion]

I would like to state that I did use the website (the second one above) to make a reservation, and I did get a response.

I also tried calling up - but this was not very useful because the person at the other end didnt speak much english.

And lastly, I landed up at Hui-ungak shelter on the Seoraksan trail - without reservation and managed to get some space and blankets in the shelter.
I would not recommend this - especially in peak seasons - since it is possible that there is really no room whatsoever in the shelter.

There is at least one other documented story about people not finding any room at the Sokcheong shelter - and having to sleep outside...