This is Episode 6 of the iGuideKorea podcast. In this episode, we hear from Dong-il Ryu the author of Climb, the only English rock climbing guidebook for all of South Korea. Climbing since the eighties, Dong-il is a walking encyclopedia for rock climbing in the country, and he has experienced some amazing adventures that he shares with us in this episode. In addition to doing translation work for the early Reel Rock Films, he is the main contributor to thecrag.com, an online global rock climbing guide. An avid climber, Dong-il’s writings and Facebook invitations to go climbing has opened up Korean rock climbing to expats, tourists and really the world. It was a great pleasure interviewing him and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did:

• The story of how Dong-il started writing Climb,
• Dong-il’s recommended climbing areas,
• Some of the best roadside climbing crags,
• The metaphysical side of Korean mountains,
• The state of South Korea’s expat climbing community,
• And Dong-il’s future plans (maybe a new guidebook?).

Here are a few links on other topics we talk about in the podcast:

iGuideKorea’s Mini Guide to Gadeuk-do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUTlM4GNwN4&t=328s

Busan Climbers Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/381181941949026/?fb_dtsg_ag=AdzOos9pfBGQDtL6ziJCkiGoIwNtbU4kaWX0ikFcUkSTIA%3AAdzqjwQdJb_Ba2weaedM6lcKJqvpSuF_xnzj7HvE2uIj5Q

The Crag - online guide for South Korea’s rock climbing:

https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/south-korea

Production of this podcast was done by BoomBoom:

https://www.boomboomaudiovideo.com

For Audio Recording / Mixing / Editing go to:

http://www.boomboomaudiovideo.com