The New and The Old

I awoke at 5:30 this morning to the sound of thousands of people cheering as Korea scored it's equalizer against France in the world cup. This draw was a big result for Korea and gives them a chance to get into the round of 16. While being rousted from bed at such an early hour was amazing, it was nothing compared to the fanaticism a week ago when Korea beat Togo. They also went nuts when Australia came back spectacularly to beat Japan (they hate Japan). On the American side of the coin, we can make it through the "Group of Death" if we beat Ghana and Italy beats the Czech Republic on Thursday.

This past weekend Mel, Corey "Bro", and I ventured to Seoraksan to hike our new favorite trail and climb at a crag we recently found out about. The hike was great and the new crag is awesome. Best climbing we have found yet in Korea. Two beautiful golden granite walls soaring 2000' out of a steep creek. While climbing we ran into an older Korean who was missing all the toes from his left foot, his two biggest toes from his right, and bits and pieces of his hands. His name is Um Hong Gil. At work today I have been doing a bit of research on this legendary (for a variety of reasons) climber. He is the 9th person to climb all 14, 8,000 meter peaks (this is still disputed due to lack of evidence). It seems that throughout his career an extraordinary number of his climbing partners have died (even for a high altitude climber of his experience) and he may be partially responsible for the rift between the N. American and E. Asian climbing communities. It has been interesting to climb here and view the climbing culture (along with the Japanese) that has such a reputation on the world stage for a lack of safety.