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Yongseo Rebolting May 17th
OK so many thanks to Greg and the Ak-Dong Climbing Club who turned up and helped us (Dave, Jenn, Kat and I) work on at Yongseo last weekend.
Especially I have to say many thanks to Jo Han-ik who patiently taught me the art of bolting and bolt/ anchor inspection. He was a really cool guy (who just happens to climb 5.13c) who seemed genuinely happy to share time, experience and broken Korean/ English conversations with usall weekend.
We were fortunate enough to be asked to participate in the annual Spring Mountain Spirit Ceremony at Yongseo as well. These Shaman-originated events are a uniquely Korean expression of the desire we all have to appease, cajole and entertain the mountain/ climbing gods etc. We bowed, presented cash and poured a libation to the great pigs head and dried fish table and burned offerings. Then the Koreans said it was time to get funky.
They were unstinting with their food and drink, and no man or woman went without a full belly and a wobbly boot to bed. The night was a jolly rumbustification by any standards and the general lack of common tongue proved no barrier to a great many stories, photos (not all of which can be printed herein!) and wild times.
Sunday was resplendent with sore heads and yet, some great if epic climbs by all. Well, nearly all. Han-ik and I spent the entire day inspectig bolts and anchors as well as clarifying the route beta. It may sound like little enough work; we replaced only a single anchor - on the 5.10b classic "wild pig/ met-dweiji"; but it was a teaching day too and we did fully inspect something like 20 routes, from top to bottom. Wild-pigs has a new and seperate anchor from it's neighbouring 5.11a "bawi-sarang" route. This straightens and shortens the route a bit keeping ropes from a sharp edge and avoiding double loading a single anchor. It doesn't have a hook yet (you might need a daisy or 2 draws to tie-in and re-thread the rope through the rap ring). But Han-ik said he would put a new hook on it soon.
A lot of the wires look much worse than they are. The anchor on "puppy/ kang-ah-ji" the far left 5.8 for example. It looks like the wires are pulling through the clamps, but this is not so. The wire ends are actually invisible because they have been spliced together for some 8 inches. The clamps are there only as a back-up. Some industrial hooks are also being replaced and one was turned around so the gate now faces outward.
Another concerning anchor on top of the 5.8 dihedral "Na-mu-gun" though with rusty hangers is actually quite solid (it has 3 x 13mm bolts).
The Anchor at the 5.10b dihedral over at Ak-Dong wall "Dae-Ho" was also fixed up. It is a candidate for a future total refit but should be quite OK now. Just beware the 1st bolt is not great and will be replaced soon.
The anchor on "Hong-man" a great 5.11, is a wire around a tree, and we found it in excellent condition. The tree is really bomber...I'm not sure why it was mentioned as a dodgy anchor...?
We discaded a few old slings and noted several other bolts that will need replacing. We just ran out of time in the end to do more, but we have a framework done and the thanks of the Korean climbing communty.
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quem deus perdere vult, primus dementat
Last edited by shanja : 05-20-2008 at 03:23 PM.
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