Taebaeksan hike info

Taebaeksan reaches 1,566.7 m but has no crags. The summit ridge is broad and rounded: you climb through forest, then the sky opens and a ring of stacked stones appears. That is Cheonjedan, an altar where people have offered rites to heaven for centuries and still do every year on National Foundation Day. Near the top stand old yew trees, bent and hollow but alive.

Winter is the busy season. Snow can reach the waist, and every twig on the ridge grows white frost. A snow festival fills Danggol Square in midwinter, and walkers in crampons file up to the altar. Summer is the quiet time, when the ridge turns to green grass. By late October the lower foliage is usually already over.

The trails are not hard, which suits the mountain. From both Yuilsa and Danggol it is a little over 4 km to the top on gentle slopes. The ridge itself has no shelter, though, and the wind bites. Trust the weather at the bottom and your hands will be cold.

From Seoul (BUS)

From Busan, Daegu and elsewhere (BUS)

To the trailhead (LOC)