Muju Ski Resort: A Foreigner's Review

Over Christmas weekend, and again this past weekend, some friends and I visited Muju Ski Resort to see what skiing in Korea is all about. Because the peninsula is covered in various mountain ranges, there are quite a few resorts in such a small area. And if you didn’t know, Korea is actually hosting the Winter Olympics in 2018. 

So, here is what I thought of Muju as a town and ski resort:

The drive up only took about an hour and a half, and the roads weren’t too bad. Once we got into town, there were some icy spots, but nothing too worrisome. One of my friends knew a place, “Ski School”, where we could stay the night, get all of our equipment, and even get a lift to the slopes. We ended up staying there, and it turned out to be a great deal. They had a number of employees who spokes great English, so there was little confusion. Because we came on a weekend, and without reservations, we got lucky though. Originally, we had planned on staying Friday and Saturday night, but because the hotel was booked Saturday night, we could only stay Friday. After calling around for us, the people at the hotel said that most of the other smaller hotels were also booked for the weekend. So just a note, if you are coming during peak season on a weekend, call ahead if you can.

After getting into our nice, spacey room, we got the equipment we needed and decided to drive ourselves up to the slopes. Muju is a state of the art resort. It has great facilities, looks great, and the snow stays pretty healthy. Because we are in the middle of the peninsula, however, a lot of the snow is man-made, so you lose some fluffiness that you might get up North. The first night, Dan and I went night skiing. Over Christmas break, we did the midnight ski, and brought along some beers. As the clock hit midnight we were on the lift. Fireworks went off (unexpected) for Christmas, and we popped open our beers to the holiday. All the lifts have trash-pits underneath them for that exact purpose, so that was awesome. Over Christmas, we basically had the place to ourselves. The wait at night was non-existent, and the skiing was great. Some of the bigger runs weren’t open, but we didn’t care… until we did the bigger runs. Our second time out (this past weekend), when we did night skiing, it was a bit more crowded, but all of the runs were open. So, we decided to check out the expert runs and see what they offered. Wow. From the very top of the mountain, all the way down, you can basically weave your way through, choosing a different path every time, and be challenged every way. We learned which paths were more crowded, which ones weren’t, so we developed the ideal path down each time. What’s even better is that the lift to the top moves really fast, so for a 6 – 8 minute ride down the mountain, the lift back up only takes 8 minutes, and with little wait. It was a perfect evening on the slopes.

Then, the sun rose. The next morning we are packed our things into the car, got our equipment (I would try snowboarding for the first time), and headed up. Wow, talked about packed. Christmas weekend was not bad at all, but this weekend was just awful. The lines were insane (couldn’t get on any lift in under 10 – 15 minutes), and going down was, at times, very nerve-racking. I picked up snowboarding in a couple of hours, and although I could get down alright, I seemed to eat snow a lot. I would figure something out, get a lot of confidence, gain a lot of speed, and then probably smash into the ground. I was happy with what I learned, but it would take me a few more times out before I’d call myself a snowboarder by any means.  So ya, overall, the day skiing just wasn’t that great. Oh, and before I forget to mention, the expert runs were closed to snowboarders. Apparently the paths are narrow, so for snowboarders who aren’t experienced, they end up just sitting in the middle a lot, slowly floating down and blocking the path. Now, this seems ridiculously unfair. First, if you aren’t experienced, don’t do the expert slope. I wasn’t going to on my snowboard, obviously, but my experienced friends couldn’t do the best run at Muju because of the fact that they were good at snowboarding, not skiing.  I have actually heard of this before. Snowboarders take up more room carving than skiers simply because their turn radius is smaller.

The area around the slopes is nice. At any point, you can simply just off the slope, pop off your skis, and go to a number of good restaurants. Popeyes, Dominos, Lotteria, and a lot of smaller places are just on the edge of the snow and the prices aren’t much more than they would be anywhere else. We sat down with a burger and hot chocolate a number of times for under 7k won.

For anyone wanting to go to Muju, you are probably in the south and it is the nearest resort. If you are further north, you have a lot of options nearby. If you do decide to visit Muju (or any resort for the matter), try to go during the week if possible. If not, plan on booking ahead to be sure that you have a room. If you want to avoid the crowds, look for the dawn skiing or the night skiing. Korea does a lot of things in large crowds, and skiing is no exception.