Skiing, Seoul

High1 is the best winter resort I've seen in Korea.
A brand new resort, '08 is their first full season of winter operations.

A multitude of slopes and lifts, and their terrain actually has real snow instead of the typical man-made crap most of the other resorts here offer.
They run 5 chairlifts (4/6 person) and 3 gondolas (8 person). I think a couple beginner's T-bars as well, but I didn't see them. Runs are from 1200m to 2800m in length. Some runs get pretty narrow, which makes dodging slower people interesting.

Equipment: Bring your own, or rent it there.

Passes aren't cheap:

46,000 1/2 day
57,000 day
72,000 day+night

But you can find deals online. We got train tickets from Seoul, two half day passes and an 8 person apartment for 65,000/ person.

Skiing for the ski enthusiasts.

We went in mid-December 2007, and there wasn't a lot of snow. Luckily (like all resorts these days) they have snow making machines and these had kept the slopes in good condition.

Disappointed that their ski instructors did not speak English (like the people selling ski passes), so we took to teaching our son by ourselves. Luckily, there are various areas to do this (not for that purpose however). From the website, there is a slope for sledding but no-one told us and it wasn't in the main area so we didn't find it.

The runs looked good, although I only managed to try one intermediate run twice. Not too crowded and the longest I waited for the lift was about 3 minutes (the queue for the beginner slope was longer).

My view of the place was that is was good for those who only want to ski, but not for children.

Equipment: Ski rental from the resort. Did not try rental from nearby shops, but pretty sure they would either be cheaper or better.

In winter, skiing is one of their sports activity. Phoenix park is one of the ski resort in Seoul. Around here, also got karaoke(most song available are korean song), bar, starbucks, bowling center and shopping mall.

Equipment: you may rent the ski equipment from there..

There are tons of Ski slopes to choose from in Korea. With plenty of snow machines they keep the season open pretty long and the mild weather is pleasant for skiing! The photo is from Bears Town only about 1 and a half hours from Seoul. It's smaller but cheaper.

Equipment: You can buy gloves and jackets and stuff all around Seoul or even at Emart. Buy or rent all equipment and gear as well. You can rent right at the slopes or there are cheaper rental places on the entrance roads to the ski resorts.

Vivladi (Bibaldi in Konglish) Park lies a few hours drive out of Seoul in beautiful mountain scenery. It has a number of slopes with varying difficulty and ski lifts for each. I visited it with Adventure Korea, an expat club - http://www.adventurekorea.com/ During summer it has a bumber of golf courses and swimming pools.

There was no snow but they had snow machines and two slopes were open. It was great fun and recommended. Typical of Korea it can be very crowded but still worth while.

Equipment: Ski/snowboard/boots/ski clothing rental is available. There is a huge ski gear shop as well. Typical Korean efficiency. Lots of food outlets including a Starbucks and Burgerking.

Korea has about 13 resorts scattered within an easy drive of Seoul. The largest is Yong Pyong (as far as lifts and runs) but Muju is higher in elevation and quickly becoming as large. You can rent anything and everything you'd ever need for skiing, but keep in mind that Koreans are normally smaller than westerners so if you have big feet, you may have a problem. Having skied at every resort during my 3 years in Seoul, Muju was by far my favorite and Yong Pyong the most challenging. If you are an average to above average skier the crowd thins the higher you go. So, if you don't mind herds of Koreans on their cell phones while skiing and all the other things associated with an over crowded Asian mountain than head for the hills.

Equipment: Rental rental everywhere but you can find some good deals on buying some gear, like gloves and glasses.

This is the best new sport I've tried. It has a cool combination of speed and enjoying the great outdoors. There's nothing like zig zagging your way down a snowy hill on a clear night or day. Yes, it's also way easier compared to diving though not as relaxing..

Skiing will also be a cinch if you're a roller-blader. The techniques are almost similar and you'll learn how to ski even if your psychmotor skills are as challenged as mine! Haha, yes, I consider it a miracle that I was able to zig zag my way downhill without causing a major Korean avalanche or getting a leg cast.

Equipment: There's quite a number of ski resorts in Korea but only 2 have the facilities to host the Olympic Winter Games .
Head down either to Muju Ski Resort or Yong Pyung Ski Resort. Yong Pyung is only a couple of hours from Seoul so it's the more popular choice.
As for equipment, you can rent the ones at the ski school. The only things I bought were the goggles since I didn't want to be a blind ski bunny.