Ivan and I got up early to hike the Gwaneumsa trail of Mount Hallasan on 17 October 2023. In hindsight, it was fairly ambitious of us considering I had only done one hike prior (Mount Fansipan, which was also ambitious for a first attempt).

The Gwaneumsa trail was not difficult, but it was long and having never been on rocky terrain before, I definitely pushed my ankles to their limits. I struggled with a sharp toenail digging into skin, which made the walk tougher than it had to be. Still, the views were worth it. 

I can’t think of a better time to get on this trail than in the Fall. I had never seen colours like that before, and I’m sure a large part of the reason why our climb to the top took as long as it did was because I kept stopping to snap photos.

Various sites recommend allowing 9 to 10 hours to complete this hike - I think we started fairly late at 10AM, reached the top at around 2.10 PM (and spent about 15 to 20 minutes just queuing to take photos), and reached the carpark just as the sun was starting to set at about 6 PM. That said, we were going extremely slowly on the way up, to the point of many helpful (and mostly elderly) hikers passing us on their way down telling us that we should hurry if we wanted to get to the top.

The route was mainly challenging for two reasons - rocks and stairs. About 35% of the route requires walking on rocks, which was difficult on the way up, and hellish on the way down when my legs were already tired and knees obliterated. Thankfully, the stairs were not difficult for me. It seemed to me that most people had the opposite experience, though, crossing the rocky bits with ease and struggling only with the steep incline toward the top.

We made friends with an adorable friendly uncle on the way up, when I overtook him on the stairs and said “Fighting!” to him, which tickled him thoroughly and he kept repeating it back to me. He later found us at the top and said “Singapore power!”, and told us he made a new friend whom he had passed 6 times on the trail when we met him again at the Samgakbong shelter on the way down.

This hike was only my second and it was humbling. Partly because I didn’t quite know what to expect, but also because it was incredible to watch these insanely fit elderly Koreans tackle the hike with ease and more impressively, speed. I don’t know how their knees handled it so well. Yet, completing this trail which is often labelled “challenging” or “difficult” also gave me a sense of pride and confidence that there were many other trails I could take on in the future.

I suppose scenic views are a potent motivator.

My tip - warm up, cool down, and hydrate. Ivan and I couldn’t walk properly for nearly 3 days after this hike, which was both really funny and really not fun.

I said I wouldn’t do this route again, but now I think it might be fun to try it in a different season.