Spotting Sharma in Seonunsan

Throughout my life I've encountered many moments of extreme joy; those times when all the world seems to pause, and lets you in on it's little secrets. For 48 hours last weekend this was the feeling that subsumed me. I had long considered myself to be the type of person that is not easily impressed by fame; not that I had been in the company of fame all that often, however, I would have liked to think that upon meeting someone I held in high regard, I would not succumb to the same types of feelings and mindless starstruck exuberance that is displayed by preteen girls at a Britney Spears concert (ya know, before she freaked out, gained a lot of weight, and shaved her head). I could not have been more wrong.



Saturday morning I awoke at the crack of... well, actually it was much earlier than dawn. I had awoken at 4:45 in the morning to begin my pilgrimage to meet the Elvis Presley of rock climbing. I took a short taxi down to the subway, and then after an hour long subway ride I met up with two friends that would be accompanying me on my journey (Nikki and Jana: Jana, as it turns out, is from Pittsburgh Kansas, and I wrestled with her cousin... for those of you who are counting, that is three people I've me from the great state of Kansas so far). Quickly we purchased our tickets for the first of three bus rides, climbed aboard and were off. After three and a half hours of beautiful mountain views we arrived at Gwangju, where we frantically got on another bus that took us an hour and a half away to the scenic mountain town of Gochang. Upon our arrival and our immediate attempt to locate the next bus, we promptly realized that none of us spoke Korean with any kind of useful extent. After a failed game of charades with the lady at the ticket window (in the smaller towns they don't have anything in English, and everything looks like this:한글) we fortunately ran into some South Africans (the anglo type) and they were able to help us get tickets to our destination: Seonunsan.



After a thirty minute "death ride" (going down mountain switchbacks in a 55 passenger bus at breakneck speeds...I think the bus driver was practicing for his debut at Indy) we arrived at Seonunsan, and quickly set out to find the other KOTR (Korea on the Rocks: it's a site that links climbing expats in Korea) climbers that we would be spending the weekend with, and not to mention, hopefully catch a glance at Chris Sharma, possibly even meet him.



After a long days hike way off course, we finally back tracked and found Charlie and about ten other new best friends from KOTR. After a few routes up the big wall, we called it a night and headed in. Little to my surprise, I came to find out that the man himself was going to be giving a presentation in a short while in the front hall of the hostel that we AND Sharma were staying in. Naturally I mentally jumped for joy and headed that way. The presentation turned out to be alright, one could easily discern that part of Sharma's sponsorship with Evolve required him to give these presentations. Afterwards my I-don't-really-want-to-admit-that-I'm-starstruckness-but-I-definitely-am set in. Sitting before me signing autographs was the first American climber able to climb 5.14, and he did it all before he could get a drivers license. This man had single handedly brought rockclimbing into the spotlight that it so deserved as being a phenomenal mental and physical activity that could push athletes to their edges time and time again. Despite all of Sharma's success he seemed surprisingly reserved, and even shy at times. At the end of the night, although at first I did not want to, I ended up getting his autograph on one of his posters (I felt like a 9 year old kid again... especially because I now have it hanging over my bed). After an eventful traditional dining experience with the group that lasted until midnight, we hobbled back to our hostel room (made for 6 people. we had 9. it was cramped, but it was at least warm) we fell to our sleeping bags and quickly fell into a deep slumber that for me, and probably many others, was filled with dreams of the following day... climbing with Sharma.



We awoke hazy eyed after a mere five or so hours of sleep at 7 a.m. upon which we gathered our things and headed outside to meet up with the climbers that had camped in tents. Quickly we had breakfast and got in a few rounds of slacklining and hacky sack, packed our gear and began the thirty plus minute hike up to the crag. At the crag we were greeted by the many Koreans that had already beaten us to the punch. We started climbing, and shortly after I led a fairly straight forward 5.10a, we got news that Sharma was climbing on the other side of the crag. I finished my route, came down, and like the many other climbers who resembled children on Christmas morning, dropped everything and head Sharma's way.



It was impressive, he scaled rock with the grace of a mastered technician, moving swiftly from move to move, crimp to crimp, past the crux and even through the dyno with the greatest of ease. He climbed a 5.13b like he was just warming up, all the while, his beautiful girlfriend Daila belaying him. I found myself smiling from ear to ear as I gazed up at this climbing legend.



I took this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i55YZLhPTXU of him climbing. (note, he makes it look easy, and it is most definitely not, it is difficult to get a feel through the video camera just how difficult this actually is).



After a long day of Sharma spotting, climbing, and making many new friends, Nikki, Jana, and I made our way back to the bus station and began our long journey home.



PICTURES HERE http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2322556&id=16808105