The Yeongnam Alps are a cluster of mountains located in the southeastern corner of South Korea. These mountains draw thousands of visitors each summer and fall with their tall grasses and dramatic rolling hills aesthetic.

Every year Ulsan, a city 20km southeast of the alps, hosts a hiking challenge for visitors to hike all the major peaks of this mountain chain. The catch is that you can only get credit within the year! This means you have to hike all 8 peaks before the end of the year, and then next year you start all over. It pushes you to get out on the trail to get it done. But the exciting bit is that you can also complete this challenge year after year – collecting the metals and award books.

Skip to the Conquering the 8 Mountains for hiking details or jump to Lodging to see recommended accommodations!

Most of South Korea’s hiking competitions are intimidating and completion can be too difficult to manage. For example, the 100 mountain challenge is seen by many as too much of an undertaking to even consider, and the national park stamp tour is also so extensive that most people don’t end up visiting all 21 national parks. While they are both fun and rewarding programs to participate in, the Yeongnam Alps 8 Peak Challenge is one that you can reasonably see through to the end and take home the win.

While you are required to check-in at eight different peaks, it’s totally possible to get all 8 of these credits in four days, even for casual hobby hikers. This means that short-term residents of South Korea can easily accomplish this challenge within a year.

Signing Up

The whole process – start to finish – is all in Korean. But its fairly straight forward. Following these simple steps it’s manageable to sign up, get credit and redeem your prize without the language barrier being too much of an issue.

The challenge is run through the app ‘영남알프스 완등인증“. It can be found on both the apple and android store and is free to download. The whole process is free – except for the shipping of your reward – which is super reasonable in my opinion.

After downloading the app, you are asked to sign in or to create a new account -> create a new account = “ 회원가입”. From here the sign up process is pretty straight forward (username, passport, Korean address). But the kicker is that you must have a registered Korean phone number – so this challenge is only available to residents of South Korea. Unfortunately, you can not sign up for this program as a visitor with a temporary phone number.

The next two screens are about the credit progress for the challenge

There is both a gps check in and photo component – in that you need to apply for your credit with a photo while at the peak. This differs from from the 100 mountain challenge which has you check in with GPS first, and then you have 48 hours to upload the image.

This challenge is more flexible with the photo itself, it can be anywhere within 100 meters of the stone. And it doesn’t have to be in front of the stone like in the sample photo. This is especially helpful in the fall, when there are long lines.

Additionally, you have the ability to later change that photo – this is nice because these images will be on your certificate / reward.

A real person checks the photos before official approval is given – so there is a slight delay in applying for credit and getting it.

After these explanation screens, you are hit with many pop-ups. The app / challenge is regularly updated – but most often these pop-ups are about the application for the rewards at the end of the challenge. You can screen shot them and have them translated on apps like Papago.

If you want to support my blog or get yourself some cool Korean national park swag, please consider checking out my Etsy shop! I make Korean camping and hiking souvenirs!

The Mountains

There are a total of 8 mountains you must hike in order to apply for the certification. Once you get credit for a mountain, the generic image of the stone is replaced by your photo.

For those of you who are perhaps familiar with the challenge – you might be asking yourself “I swear it was the 9 peak challenge”, and you would be correct. But as of 2023, its now only 8 peaks. They removed 만복산 from the list.

The 8 Peaks!

Some of these mountains are traditionally hiked together. Largely due to their regional clustering. This turns your 8 trip challenge into a much shorter one!

The following are all 8 mountains in their clusters, with suggested trails & maps.

For the sake of kakao maps/naver maps the names of starting lcoations which you would then need to put into these apps, will be in Korean.

가지산 (Gajisan, ) + 운문산 (Unmunsan, ):

• Hiking Gajisan and Unmunsan together * Best Option *
  • Course: 석남고개-중봉-가지산(Gajisan)-백운산갈림길-아랫재-운문산(Unmunsan) [double back 1.2km]-아랫재-상양복지회관- 상양마을
    • About: 13.5km/6 hours
    • In the below map, the starting point is the tunnel & end point in black school icon

Or Separately:

• Hiking only Gajisan:
  • Course: 석남고개 -중봉-가지산(인증)-백운산갈림길-아랫재-상양복지회관-상양마을
    • About 10.5km/5 Hours
    • Starting point is the tunnel & End point in black school image
    • Same Start and End points as Course 1, but without the Unmunsan there and back 2.4km add on
• Hiking only Unmunsan :
  • Course: 폭포파크주차장 (parking lot name)-상양복지회관-아랫재-운문산(인증)-아랫재-상양복지회관-상양마을
    • About 10.2km/5 Hours
    • Same start and endpoint (the black school icon)

고현산 (Gohyeonsan: 1,033m) –

This mountain used to be hiked as a pair with 문복산, but since that mountain is no longer a part of the challenge, Gohyeonsan has become a solo mountain adventure.

This mountain is hiked as a there and back 5.5km at around 2.5 – 3.5 hours.

• Course: 신기 마을 – 고현사 – 고현산 (Gohyeonsan) -> back to the start

천황산 (Cheonhwangsan: 1,189m) + 재약산 (Jaeyaksan: 1,119m)

• Hiking Both Mountains Together
  • Course: 배내고개 – 능동산 – 천황산 (Cheonhwangsan) – 재약산 (Jaejaksan) – 죽전마을
    • About 16.5km/8 Hours
    • Starting point circled in red, follow the blue trail, then the green trail to the end point.
• As you can see from the below image, you can also hike these two mountains as a there and back from 전죽마을 (green trail). But the 능동산 peak (right above the red circled starting point) on the other end is included in other challenges (the 낙동전맥 challenge) and the lead up course (blue trail) to Cheonhwangsan is quite beautiful.

간월산 (Ganwolsan: 1,069m) + 신불산 (Sinbulsan:1,159m) + 영축산 (Yeongchuksan: 1,081m)

This section is objectively the most beautiful section of the Yeongnam Alps and is the most popular – attracting more people than all the other sections combined. This is the section to bring friends and perhaps haul a nice digital camera to the peak.

• Hiking all 3 Mountains Together
  • Course: 배내고개 – 간월산 (Ganwolsan) – 신불산 (Sinbulsan) – 영축산(Yeongchuksan) – 죽전마을
    • About 16.5km/8 Hours
    • Starting at red circle, following purple trail to the red trail, and then heading down the mountain along the yellow trail.

The Yeongnam Alps Sky Course: Hiking 5 Peaks in One Day!

I completed the Sky course during the fall 2021 and it was an unbelievably rewarding experience. It kicked my butt a fair bit ( I mean it’s 32km people! Haha) but I took some of my favorite fall photos along this course. It also has the same start and finish spot – making it fairly convenient to plan logistically.

The Full Sky Course:

• Course: 배내고개-능동산 – 천황산 (Cheonhwangsan) -재약산 (Jaeyaksan) -죽전마을 / Cafe Stop – 영축산 (Yeongchuksan) – 신불산 (Sinbulsan) -간월산장-간월산 (Ganwolsan)-배내고개
  • About 32km/13 Hours
  • Starting and ending at the red circle; going in a counterclockwise direction

Best time of Year:

If I was planning the perfect way to do this challenge I might consider leaving 간월산 (Ganwolsan) + 신불산 (Sinbulsan) + 영축산 (Yeongchuksan) section for November. While exact timing of the fall foliage changes each year, the Yeongnam Alps areas tends to be a bit later than the rest of the country (typically at the end of October until mid-November). While the bright green grasses are quite nice in the summers, I greatly enjoyed the more brown appearance in the fall.

For the other mountains, consider a winter hike for at least one of them. Hiking in the snow is a lot of fun, and being able to see the rolling hills with snow cover is a sight to see.

Lodging

The Yeongnam Alps are quite far from Seoul, so hiking these mountains can be tough for Seoul residents as a day trip. So in an ideal world, I would recommend booking a pension or hotel and perhaps completing multiple mountains over the course of a weekend.

The Yeongnam Alps is a 30km/ 50 minutes drive or 1.5 hours by public transport from downtown Ulsan. Ulsan is a major metropolitan area that is connected to Seoul and Busan by the high speed railway / KTX and long distance buses. For lodging, you can stay in (1) the city, (2) by the beach or (3) in the mountains.

The closest, English friendly accommodation to the Yeongnam Alps is the three star Pavilla Hotel. This spot offers western rooms at a budget friendly cost

For a downtown Ulsan accommodation with river views with access to many restaurants and shops, the Hotel Riverside Ulsan is a good contender and not too expensive!

Lastly, for beach side lodging (about an hour and a half from the Yeongnam Alps by bus) on the fancier end Hotel Hyundai by Lahan Ulsan is an excellent choice for high end beach side hotels. For a very budget friendly beach option in walking distance of Ilsan Beach, I would recommend ‘일산해수욕장 대왕암공원 숙소’.

Happy Trekking!

-Aurora