Trad

[mil-mil]

So I recently purchased a rack of cams and a set of nuts and other trad like things and am looking for people / places to climb trad with / at. Obviously there is alot of Trad in the north Soraksan and Insu/Sonin Bong and other places, I am wondring if anyone knows of any places in the south that is good for trad... preferably lower level 5.8-5.9 in grade as i am still wrapping my mind around the whole trad aspect of climbing.

[skinsk]

Mike,

If you are learning to place gear and want to practice on easy things (at least until you can really trust your placements), you might try some of the ridge routes. They often have pitches in the 5.6-5.8 range. I know you're a lot stronger than that with sport-climbing, but you'll want to go slowly. You might try to second a route first, so you can practice crack technique and look at placements. After this weekend, I'd suggest you hook up with Corey for a day at Insubong! You'll need a helmet here and for most of the trad areas in Korea.

There's trad/ridge routes in many places: Daedunsan, Wolchulsan, Palgongsan (near Daegu) and the Yeongnam Alps of Kyeongsangnam are traditional trad areas. There are trad areas in Geumjeongsan, too. Of course, nothing beats the classics on Janggunbong and Ulsanbawi on Seorak or the mad-house weekend chaos of Bukhansan (which is a peaceful oasis mid-week!) but these are pretty committed routes!

If you look at Korean guidebooks and topos, they often use the word 프레드 for "Friend" (or cam) to indicate a trad route. 크랙 for "crack". . . of course, crack here doesn't necessarily mean no bolts! . . . Yongseo has many (most bolted) cracks that take gear. . . it's another great option for learning-- if you're sketched and you can't get anything, clip the bolt:o

[Tleex]

There are also a few trad routes near Mosageum Beach in Yeosu. They looked like a lot of fun.

If you ever feel like coming down, just let us know!

[normalcyispasse]

I don't think those are actual trad routes, just places where you could place a couple pieces of trad gear.