Halla Mountain and National Park

“Challenging Climb, Impressive Views” We took up this challenge in early April, just stepping into Spring. We took the bus from Jeju Express Bus Terminal, took about 40 minutes to reach the Eorimok bus stop. Before taking the bus though, we highly recommend to check with the Tourist Information Center just outside the bus terminal on the last returning bus. Thankfully we checked, the last bus in March period was 4.55pm at Eorimok. Summer periods probably have a later last bus back. This bus serves the Yeongsil trail entrance as well. There is still a ~20 mins walk along the road before reaching the entrance to the Eorimok trail. Impressive mountain views once you reach the park entrance. The Eorimok trail starts off deceptively tame for about 500m. Once you get the past the wooden bridge, the tough hike starts. For the next 2km, we experienced the toughest climb of the entire trail. Steep and large steps at times, with large, uneven rocks littering the way up. The view is mostly green at this point. Near the end of the first 2km, we started to see melting ice along the trail. Certain parts were still iced up; we had to climb on top of the ice to traverse. Due to the melt, it was quite slippery. A hiking stick or 2 is highly recommended, though we had not brought any for our trip. After 2km, the trail leveled off into a plateau, a welcome rest after a seemingly endless slog. Strong winds and rain pummeled us that day, but all the more made the challenging climb more exciting and enjoyable. The rest of the way to the Witse Oreum was of average difficulty, and the landscape was foggy and snowy/icy. We encountered many instances that we had to walk on the ice so be sure to be equipped with good shoes to reduce the chance of slipping on the ice. We finally reached the Witse Oreum after about 3 hours, and bought and slurped down the ramen and its soup, as well as a chocolate energy bar. They also carried stuff like crampons and plastic sheet raincoat (we bought it for the heat trapping characteristic rather than for shielding against rain, we foolishly did not expect snow and ice in April tbh :P). We originally wanted to go down via the Yeongsil trail which meets the Eorimok trail at the Witse Oreum, but a pair of local, seasoned hikers who turned back for Eorimok warned us that the Yeongsil trail is still mostly frozen over and is very difficult to traverse at this time. Due to the lack of proper equipment, we heeded their advice and went back down Eorimok instead. The trip down was much faster, but hurt our knees more due to the impact. Tread with care as the uneven terrain may cause slip and falls.The journey down took approximately an 1.5 hours. Overall it was really challenging but fun. Things to note: 1. Take note of the last bus timing or you may have to hitch a ride back to town. 2. And of course, cater buffer time to reach the bus stop, there is still a 20 min walk to it. 3. Hiking gear, especially proper shoes and a hiking stick or 2 is highly recommended. 4. Early April features unmelted snow in the terrain, wear proper clothing. 5. The same bus goes to the Yeongsil trail, may want to try hiking that as well (on different days of course) 6. The Eorimok is pretty challenging for a novice like myself, heard from locals that the Seongpanak trail on the Eastern side is more relaxing but longer. 7. The Eorimok trail does not reach the summit, if you want to reach the summit, try the Seongpanak or Gwaneumsa trails instead

Hallasan is a shield volcano on Jeju Island of South Korea. Hallasan is the highest mountain in South Korea. The area around the mountain is a designated national park, the Hallasan National Park (Hallasan Gungnip Gongwon/한라산국립공원/漢拏山國立公園). Hallasan is commonly considered to be one of the three main mountains of South Korea, with Jirisan and Seoraksan being the other two.