It's time for another episode of The Two Crabs Guide to Skiing Korea! The final resort we are reviewing this season is Bears Town. This small resort is located less than 45 minutes northeast of downtown Seoul. With just a handful of slopes and creaky slow-ass chair lifts, and mostly man-made snow, there's not much to say. Bears Town is the place you go when you don't have time to head east to Yongpyong or High 1. 

 That said, it's not a bad little neighborhood hill. Most of the slopes are green and gentle. It's a good place to learn to ski. The longest "challenge" run would barely qualify as an advanced beginner slope in Austria. As for amenties, there's a small lodge with lockers, a KFC and a few snack shacks. There's also a hotel and youth hostel but I can't imagine why anyone would want to stay there overnight. You can ski the entire mountain several times over in a 4-hour time blocks offered. Tip: if you pay with a visa card, you can get 40% off your lift pass.

On this visit, Mr. Crab tried his hand at snowboarding. Mind you, this is only the third time in my life that I've stepped foot in a snowboard. As my past attempts, I spent the better part of the day on my ass or falling on my head. But after about 2 hours of tumbling, I managed to stay up long enough to do the "falling leaf" and link 1 or 2 turns. But you just can't teach this old dog new tricks...I'll stick to skiing.  

More scenes from Bears Town:

During the 2013-2014 Ski Season, the Two Crabs had the opportunity to sample four of Korea's major ski resorts: Yongpyong, Phoenix Park, Bears Town and High 1 Resort. Of those, HIGH 1 is by far the tops! The Two Crabs visited High 1 during the American President's Day holiday weekend with dozens of friends and colleagues. 

 High 1 is a four-hour drive from downtown Seoul, located in the southeast corner of Gangwon province. It's certainly not the closest, but it's worth the drive. At 1,367m (4,484 ft), High 1 is the highest elevation and most snow-sure of Korea's ski resorts, hene the name. 

Don't let the poorly-designed piste ski map steer you wrong: this place is HUGE. 18 runs. 3 gondolas. 6 chairlifts. The resort is a huge horseshoe-shaped bowl, with all the runs dumping into a common mid-station before ending in a gentle green slope down to the base village.

There's something for everyone here. For beginners, there are several gentle, long lazy green slopes. For experts, there are actually some honest-to-gods challenging (albeit short) slopes to tackle. Non-skiers will find dozens of restaurants and cafes, a huge casino and great accomodations. Our group of 6 stayed in a large, 2-bedroom Mountain Condo with heated ondol floors. Our hotel complex even had several outdoor hot tubs!

High 1 has one major negative point in our book: the slopes are "dry". You won't find a drop of alcohol for sale at any of the slopeside restaurants, cafeterias and cafes. The only place to find booze at High 1 is the lone convenience store at the base station, the casino, or bring it with you. As noted before on this blog, Koreans have yet to embrace the Apres Ski scene! 

A few more scenes from High 1: