Oak Valley Ski Trip

On January 26th we went skiing at Oak Valley in Gangwon-do, Korea. Oak Valley opened its ski resort in 2006, and is the closest resort complex to Seoul with a total of 9 slopes: 2 slopes for the advanced skiers, 5 slopes for the intermediate skiers and 2 slopes for the beginner skiers. The lift to the peak has been designed to carry a maximum of 9,200 people in 1 hour. The longest slope from Samtaebong Peak is 1,600m, with a section equipped with half pipes for snowboarders. Hansol Oak Valley’s facilities include a condo, a hotel, a golf course, a sauna, a swimming pool, and more.

The trip was organized by Adam (a Korean friend of ours). There were about 15 of us skiing that day, Adam managed to get a total package for 60,000w (This used to be about $60 until the exchanged rate went down the toilet for us over the last two weeks.. meaning we get less money when we send it home now). The total package included round trip shuttle bus from Sanbon to the resort, day lift pass, skis, pants, jacket and goggles - it was an amazing deal!

We left around 6am and were dressed and on the slopes around 11am. It turned out to be a wonderful afternoon; the weather was nice and even though I hadn't been skiing in over 4 years (and only once!) I was able to ski without any problems! However, Krista was a pro (her school days of cross country skiing paid off)!


For those of you wondering some of the pick up stops are for the bus, click here.


Krista the pro skier.











Trail map.





Oak Valley Resort




The lift line for the beginner hill, we skied this hill twice and moved on to the intermediate & advanced tails.




A view from the lift, you can see Karen (co worker) on the left, and Krista.












Look! It's Brett Farve!



One of the intermediate/advanced trails.



None of the trails were terrifying, the only scary part was trying not to ski in to anyone else!



We had a great afternoon, if we are around next year we will definitely be going on another ski trip.