DWS deep water soloing in Korea

[choss monkey]

Or to be more specific... Busan.

yeah, i know i've become a kotr whore lately, but damn people this video was filmed in busan (look at those cliffs), and there is a lot of coastline with a crazy number of small islands down here. does anyone have the beta on some of these places? i'll dog paddle my *** out there if i have to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kpcAovjhfs

wait until the one min mark and then prepare to **** your pants.

[yandy]

Done some digging around on Korean sites. Here's what I've found:

The place is called So MeMul-Do and it's 34'11N 127'04E which is no where near Busan.


http://blog.daum.net/a7651348/5582993?srchid=BR1http%3A%2F%2Fblog.daum.net%2Fa76 51348%2F5582993

The site above is worth visiting for the music alone. The one below has a nice map.

http://blog.daum.net/chanchanha/11906886?srchid=BR1http%3A%2F%2Fblog.daum.net%2Fch anchanha%2F11906886

This one has nice pics:
http://cafe.daum.net/jdc3145/7oEb/345?docid=1GV49|7oEb|345|20090411174357&q=%BC%D2%B8%DE%B9%B0%B5%B5&srchid=CCB1GV49|7oEb|345|20090411174357

[yandy]

Ignore those co-ordinates. I got it wrong. That's Memul-do. The place those people went to is Maemul-do, they translated it wrong. It's a lot nearer Busan.

34'37N 128'32E

It's actually on Geoje-do - www.geojedo.go.kr - which is a 50 minute, 20,000won catamaran ride from Busan. But the rocks are on the other side of the island and I'm not sure how you'd get over there, it's about a 45 minute drive.

http://www.oedogeojedotour.com/tourseo/

I was down there last Autumn and I noticed this place, HaeGeumGang, but didn't get close enough to check it out, because I was with some girls and it was windy and they wouldn't take the boat. But from a distance you could tell there was loads of lines. I don't know if it would be overhanging enough for DWS, but check out these pics, listen to the music and I challenge you not to be moved:

http://blog.daum.net/j68021/13744032?srchid=BR1http%3A%2F%2Fblog.daum.net%2Fj6 8021%2F13744032

more pics here:
http://blog.daum.net/ssjs55/7697648?srchid=BR1http%3A%2F%2Fblog.daum.net%2Fssj s55%2F7697648

[yandy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkBatYSzfxo

Like I said, doesn't look overhanging enough. I'd like to propose a trip for the 28th October, because I think this guy is claiming the rapture will happen there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZC8yEy_s3I

...all of a sudden, religion doesn't seem so ridiculous.

[texas_nikki]

im totally in for this venture......por favor. :)

[choss monkey]

yeah 99% of it doesn't look overhanging, but if you look at the cave areas there are gentle overhangs. don't know how deep the water is without looking, but if you look around the 2 min mark on the vid i posted there are overhangs and a roof that the boat passes under, so there has to be some depth. it's hard to say though until we go look. i'll work on the travel logistics this week. maybe we can go there and check it out soon if anyone is down.

there is also a freshwater "swimming hole" near here where people jump off of cliffs into deep water that a hiker friend of mine was telling me about. sounds promising.

[yandy]

That cave on 2 minutes would be wicked and there's a really nice platform to start from.

I forgot to mention there is a bridge out to Geoje-do, but it's about a 3 hour drive. You have to go way out west from to 마산 then 통영. They're building one from Busan that will make it a 30 min journey, but it won't be finished until next year. You could try and jump the missing sections, Speed style.

[supertopoz]

I don't mind doing, a bit of trad.
So long as it doesn't look too hard, up to the 5.11 mark.

Slo said, 2 meters to start, then one meter for every meter you go up.

10 meters up needs 11 meters depth.
As I remember

[choss monkey]

i was talking to andy about renting kayaks. maybe we should just go prepared for trad, and if the DWS looks good then we'll consider it a bonus.

getting there may be the trickiest part, but we can always drive the blue bullet.

[yandy]

The more I think about crossing one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world in a kayak, the more I like the idea. But for those less hardcore, I'm trying to find out if you can rent boats/kayaks on the island.

[Park, Cheolyoung]

click those links

http://video.naver.com/2009042220574003711

http://blog.naver.com/junraul/80055414992


http://cafe.naver.com/jejusch.cafe?iframe_url=/ArticleRead.nhn%3Farticleid=38112

it's volcanic island located further south from Je-ju island.
(it's furthest south island of korea)

I'm not sure it has potential of being deep water soloing untill actually touch it. However I can see slim chance.


I haven't heard any Deep water soloing stuff in korea, but I think no one tried to search it before. There's many islands which have sea cliffs. So I guess that there is some chance for DWS things.

[Scott]

Although I'm no longer in Korea, I'll throw my two cents in on this one:

I, too, spied DWS potential while taking a boat tour based out of Tongyeong. I ruled it out at the time for lack of access - WAY too far to be reached by kayak and, presumably, WAY too expensive to rent a boat to get out there. That said, I also saw a few disgustingly good-looking boulders on that trip, but can't be sure of the names of the island anymore...

Anyway, all this is to say that for those located in the south, with time to spare, it could be well worth your time to look off-shore. On the other hand, by the looks of the photos, y'all should be living in the hills around Busan and bouldering 'til your fingers fall off.

Scott

[choss monkey]

-i think the volcanic island may be out. travel is expensive, death falls and sharp sharp lava rock.

-i'm all for kayaking the ship channel. i bet we could make the news.

-anyone know if we can rent motor boats somewhere. that would be a fun rainy day adventure. do a little exploring.

[yandy]

http://imagesearch.naver.com/search.naver?where=idetail&rev=5&query=%C0%CC%B1%E2%B4%EB&from=image&ac=-1&sort=0&res_fr=0&res_to=0&merge=0&spq=0&start=18&a=pho_l&f=tab&r=18&u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.naver.com%2Fbwh0450%3FRedirect %3DLog%26logNo%3D70017418028&thumbnail=http%3A%2F%2Fthumbview01.search.naver.co m%2Fthumbnails%3Fq%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fblogfiles.naver. net%2Fdata17%2F2007%2F5%2F13%2F270%2F%25C8%25B8%25 C0%25FC_dsc04780_1-bwh0450.jpg&signature=828969426132&gdid=90000003_00000000000000104D5D032C

Check out the longest link in history. If anybody wants unclimbed trad sea cliffs in Busan, then this is the place to go. It's called 이기대 and it's all along the coast between Gwangalli bridge and Buasan harbour.

[BedHead]

yes!!! can i git a wit-nesssssss! please keep us posted on details

[choss monkey]

i have freckle on the inside of my right ring finger that looks like a little piece of poo that i didn't wash off after i wiped. are those the details you're looking for?

[markchui]

fell in love with dws after thailand. kayaking the channel sounds ridiculous fun as well too. if anyone is game for a kayak expedition to find some dws, Im free until the 7th or 8th of may.
so anyone up for a few days of kayaking, snorkeling to check out landing zones and climbing (fall permitting)?

[BedHead]

i have freckle on the inside of my right ring finger that looks like a little piece of poo that i didn't wash off after i wiped. are those the details you're looking for?

so much for sharing a chalk bag with you...

[Park, Cheolyoung]

http://blog.daum.net/kmsnara/5854932

check this link.

It took my breath away..

caves and elephant looking rock..

[yandy]

Is it that out near Ulleungdo and Dokdo?

[choss monkey]

holy crap man, today was productive as hell. jason #2 (supertopoz) and i went to the place shown in the first link i posted. we didn't even take the boat to look at the potential dws, but from what we did see, we are definately going back to look some more. there was so much rock i had trouble not wetting my pants. not to mention the stuff we saw on the boat ride to the island. SICKNESS. we saw giant boulders and big caves on one tiny island that had people on it despite no way to get there other than by boat. it looked like there was a water taxi going there. i can't even describe the beauty of these areas maybe supertopoz can because he be gooder with words than i be.

and now i just got back and saw the new area that yandy found today... http://www.koreaontherocks.com/climbing/areas.php?area_id=280

[Park, Cheolyoung]

yes it's Ulleungdo.

[yandy]

If I get an FA on Dokdo, can I claim it as my own?

[choss monkey]

nope, it already belongs to japan. hahaha just kidding.

[Park, Cheolyoung]

Before get a FA on Dokdo, I think you need permission to enter first.

Strange Thing is It's Definitely Korean territory, but even Korean citizen cannot land on Dokdo without permission. Plus Even if you have permission, sometimes weather is horrible, you can't land on too.