The Adventures of Jen: Ski Resort Day 1: Night Skiing!

Welli Hilli Park Ski Resort

Recognized for its size and safety by the International Ski Federation (FIS), Welli Hilli Park (formerly Sungwoo Resort) is equipped with half-pipes and boardwalks that meet the size qualifications for international competition. Its FIS certification and variety of facilities has made it a popular destination for serious snowboarders.

The resort offers 19 slopes ranging from bunny slopes to black diamond courses and a mogul course to maximize fun and thrills. The Fun Park, the largest of its kind in Korea, offers more than 10 facilities including a C Box, X Box, and Wall Box for snowboarders to practice their tricks.

Courtesy of: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr

First of all, this was a fantastic trip! Jeff took two days off of work (of which I already had scheduled vacation time) and treated me to a birthday skiing adventure! We left early on Monday morning for the subway and following bus ride that would take us east to our ski resort.

The bus dropped us off a tad bit early, so we had a few hours to enjoy hot coffee and an impressive view of the slopes while we waited for our room to open up. As we gazed out into the mountain scene, I commented on the size of the hills. Now, Wisconsin is flat, you see, and that's the only place I've ever skied. I searched for the bunny hill, but I couldn't find one. I mentioned my intimidation and was met with Jeff's, "if you're intimidated, I'm terrified!" Haha. He didn't show his fear, but he informed me that the few times he has hit the slopes (quite a while ago) weren't the most successful or graceful experiences.

We spent another part of the afternoon searching for a decently-priced hat and mask for me since I managed to leave home without both. As you can see from our picture, we certainly looked the part of avid, super-cool skiers...or not, haha.

Finally, somewhere around 7pm (it was a long, confusing process trying to get our skis, boots, and lift tickets!), we began our downhill adventure! We stood in awe of the hills and full of confusion as we tried to interpret the map. Yes, the runs were color-coded, but the Korean explanation of what each color meant wasn't overly helpful to us. We decided to trust our eyes and simply looked for the hill with the gentlest angle.

Jeff's plan was to stay on the bunny hill for much of the night, and given how icy the snow was (it had warmed up, melted, and refrozen recently), I was perfectly content to join him.

In Wisconsin, there are things called bunny hills. On the Korea Tourism website, it stated there were bunny hills. In Wisconsin, the bunny hills are small and equipped with a rope tow. In Korea (typically underwhelming, in my experience), at this particular ski resort, the "bunny hill" was equipped with a four-person chair lift. This was a VERY LARGE bunny hill.

After building up our resolve and courage, we found flat ground and snapped our boots into our skis. Let me reiterate, we were on flat ground. That did not, however, stop us from sliding right through the line-up area for the lift, and nearly sliding past the loading dock. The lift operator practically had to catch and stop us so we could board. Based off of our smooth sailing so far, I decided to give Jeff and I plenty of space when it came time to depart the life. (Haha, fantastic typo I noticed upon re-reading this. I intended to say, "depart the lift." "Life" seems somewhat fitting, though, too.) When I say this, I mean that I moved to the far side of the bench lift so that there were two empty seats between us. He informed me later that I somehow still managed to ski over the back of one of his skis as we scrambled to get off, haha.

After a little wobbliness on both of our parts, we made it down our first slope unscathed! Something magically clicked for Jeff, and it turned into the best night of skiing he's ever had! Our third time down the hill, another beginner skier managed to make like a bullet for Jeff's shoulder... he was fine, but she definitely felt the impact. We decided to move on up and try to find a slightly more difficult, less crowded run.

There was another area marked with the same color on the map that we decided to try. We hopped on the ski lift closest to our destination, and quickly became concerned. This ski lift was an upgrade from the last one- it was a fully enclosed lift meant for going higher up on the mountain. We had a leisurely few minutes as we continued to go up, up, up. As we went up, up, up I began to feel scared, scared, scared. We were going quite high up, and the runs below us were looking beyond steep. Hardly anybody was even on them!

Jeff and I made a swift decision to stay within the safety of our enclosed lift, and ride it right back down to the bottom, haha. Well, kind of. Our curiosity ended up getting the best of us, and we decided to take a quick tour of the lodge located at the top of the mountain before hitching a ride back down on the lift. Jeff attempted to open the door as we prepared ourselves, our skis, and our ski poles (we later realized they should have been attached to the ski compartment on the outside of the lift, not jumbled inside the small space with us). The door, however, did not budge. He tried again, a tad more frantically. Still, it was locked tight. So... back to plan A, we would stay on the lift and ride it back down. And back up, and back down... until our door decided to cooperate. As our little bubble lift approached the platform, the brilliant engineering kicked into gear, and the door opened for us. Apparently it's locked shut as a safety precaution while over the open slopes, and only opens once in the safety of the loading dock. Ok, disaster averted. Feeling a bit sheepish, we looked about and realized that the less intimidating hill we were searching for was, in fact, located all the way up there. It managed to wind its way down the backside of the mountain, and make for a quite enjoyable run! About midway down, you could even see the lights of a nearby town - the magic of night skiing!

We did this run a handful of times before deciding to call it a night due to frozen toes and shutting down lifts.