Acha-san and Yongma-san, Seoul

I've been riding on Acha (which means "Oops!" or "Yikes!" in Korean) since 1995. It's one of my favorite spots anywhere in the world, and I work right down the street! Here are some recent shots of me (Stiff) and Brett (Boob) purveying the poop this spring. If I had some vid, then you could really see how all this stuff links up so nicely and relentlessly.

--Steve, 15 May 2001

Here's the entrance to Yikes, a steep rocky thing with nary a bike on it. Hikers in dismay when you hit it. It's a lot of fun.

The Boob goes over a granite dome frontwards with a backwards fender. One of the many launchpads on the Acha-san UFO Emporium.

Some rocky steeps on the Yongma ridge. This line took a while to get--you enter from the left after more of the same. The entire ridge is like this. Wish I had a helmet-cam.

The classic Yikes descent between Yongma and Acha. Portage uphill for 15 minutes for a 2 minute plummet. Is it worth it? Yep.

This photo really captures what we like about the riding in Seoul: granite ridges into dense city, plenty of bad lines, and hikers that don't attack.

Not a riding shot, but this photo also helps you see what you're getting into in Seoul-riding: where does the trail go? Right on to the roofs--you're going down this steep pitch, and you look up right into someone's window. We're still trying to find a good exit off this one.

I added this one mostly because there's a nice little pagoda here that you can jump off of and then scramble down the granite. Well you're probably wondering where the shot is of someone jumping off it and all I have to say is that the dog ate the film (and then the dog was eaten). Rider: Gilles the Frenchman.

A new Acha trail called Spankinator. Just a standard rocky Korean DH run.

Korea is full of singletrack like this. I've been here for years and we've just found this one.

OK, that's all for now. There are other places around Seoul but we haven't dragged the camera everywhere yet. Actually, we need a camera. But other good freeriding locales include all the steeps coming out of Namhan Sansung's west gate, Kwanak Mtn, Pukhan-san National Park (in Seoul's city limits, but off-limits to bikes), and some very strange urban. Namhan Sansung in particular is a mountain fortress some 400 years old in places, sort of like a miniature Great Wall of China; it's got a few places along the wall where you could huck up to 8m vertical or so. Not that I've done it, but I'd like to watch....