Pyeongchang in South Korea will host the Winter Olympic Games in 2018. Here’s an inside look at the local ski culture there.
It’s midnight. The slopes are still open and the music’s still blaring.
This is skiing South Korean-style: fast, furious and full of energy.
In a year’s time, Pyeongchang, a little-known mountain region in eastern South Korea, will become host to the world’s biggest winter sports stage: the Olympic Games.
But will the crowds come?
South Korea has never been as much of a tourist draw as neighboring China or Japan, and the precarious security situation — the Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war, with North Korea brandishing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles — hasn’t helped.
South Korea is mountainous but doesn’t have the stunning, jagged peaks of the Alps or volcanoes blanketed in 15 meters of snow like Hokkaido.
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It doesn’t have the rollicking, raucous mid-mountain huts of Austria where skiers pass around bottles of schnapps, or log-cabin lodges with crackling fires where skiers sip glasses of vin chaud or gluehwein.
What South Korea lacks in tradition it makes up for in efficiency: small, modern resorts with fast lifts and good snowmaking.
And the region does have a ski culture all its own: soju, BBQ and plenty of time soaking in spas known as jjimjilbang .
Tourists from Southeast Asia know this, and make their way to South Korea’s Gangwon Province for a taste of winter and to follow in the footsteps of some of their favorite Korean stars.
It’s Hokkaido-lite, with a splash of K-pop.
Ready to hit the slopes?
Here’s how to ski like a local in Pyeongchang, South Korea (not to be confused with Pyongyang, North Korea, which has its own ski resort).
Carry a flask of soju for those frigid 2 a.m. chairlift rides
If you’re planning to ski at night, consider arming yourself with a flask of soju — Korea’s answer to schnapps — to keep you warm.
Here’s why: the future site of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in eastern Gangwon Province lies about 200 kilometers from the South Korean capital, Seoul.
But until construction is completed on the high-speed train line, you’ll be traveling by bus or car. Without traffic, it’s a 2.5-hour drive.
But with weekend traffic, you could arrive well into the night.
Perhaps to accommodate Seoulites’ hours, resorts here stay open late. Very late.
Alpensia is open until 10 p.m. while chair lifts at Yongpyong , also known as Dragon Valley, operate for night skiing until 2:30 a.
