Participating in sports activities is not always easy, especially abroad. Do you lack a sports club membership, or is the weather outside too hot or cold? Then maybe sports climbing might be something for you. In this article, I will write about bouldering in particular.
But what is bouldering exactly?
While bouldering your main goal is to get to the Top of the boulder. Put into simple words, you have two grips as a starting point and one as the Top (Finish), which you have to hold for at least 3 seconds. In between you are basically allowed to do whatever you can, to get to the Top. Every gym has slightly different grades. They define the difficulty of the boulder. So, it is a very flexible sport. It does not matter if you are an experienced climber, completely new to the sport, or doing another kind of sport everyone can find a project that matches their own difficulty. It is perfect for small groups of people with different activity levels.
Seoul offers a large variety of bouldering gyms across different districts of Seoul. Almost every area has at least one or two.
These are the gyms that have been to while visiting Seoul:
더클라임 강남점 Theclimb Gangnam, Seoul
더클라임 연남점, THECLIMB Yeonnam, Seoul
서울볼더스 클라이밍 컴퍼니(SEOULBOULDERS CLIMBING)
However, as I said before there are many more. I recommend choosing the one closest to you as it is the most convenient.
Even though bouldering generally is the same everywhere there are some differences from country to country. One fact that I was astonished by is where the gyms are located. In Germany, they are mostly slightly out of the city or in large halls which once were factory halls. In Seoul, they are directly the city. This makes sense as Seoul is a huge city compared to others but it still fascinated me. Furthermore, the gyms are often located on the basement floor or inside a multiuse building. So, don't be confused about going into a building or a shopping center that's where some of them are located. Regarding difficulty depends on the difficulty and the gym. In most of the gyms in Seoul, they use V0 to V8+. I'm currently between V5 and V6, however, V6 sometimes is too hard and I need multiple tries. In general, bouldering has become more and more dynamic which means you have to slightly jump (Sometimes more than just a slight jump). From my perspective the harder the boulder in Korea the more dynamic it gets. Another thing that is rarely used in Germany but a lot in Korea is tripods. Korean climbers are really professional when it comes to taking the perfect videos. almost every climber had their own tripod to take a video. In Germany, some use tripods as well but not as much as Koreans do. In conclusion, I had a great time bouldering in Seoul. I was able to keep up with my favorite sport, meet new people, and try out new boulders. If you are looking for a fun activity when the weather isn't playing along or a new sport why don't you try out bouldering ?
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