As I covered in my comprehensive guide to South Korea’s Dyeogusan National Park, there are two main hiking courses you can take to reach the main peak, Hyang-jeok-bong [향적봉]. One option is to ride Muju Resort’s gondola to Seolcheonbong [설천봉] and then hiking 0.6 km to the peak. A straightforward and easy path to take. However, if you want to hike in the WINTER [October to February] on a WEEKEND, you MUST make an online reservation days ahead of time, otherwise you will be unable to reserve your spot on the gondola.
This gondola + hike combo is similar to the Seoraksan Cable Car, but the main difference is that this cable car lets you do a longer hike if you want, while the Seoraksan Cable Car cannot be used as a short cut to a larger hike.
Important Official Facts
- From October to February, you need to make a reservation to ride the gondola on the WEEKEND. Weekdays you will still reserve in person. The months outside that range, likewise, have you reserving your tickets in person.
- You don’t pay when you make the reservation, so you don’t need a Korean bank account. But you will need a Korean phone number as you will have to prove your identity online to make the reservation.
- Reservations open 14 days early at 5pm and it will book out quickly. You can also cancel your reservation so you could check back in on dates to see if a spot opened, but don’t count on it!
- You will need to select a specific 30-minute time slot. The time you selected determines your time slot to ride up the mountain. If you miss your selected time by a significant margin, you forfeit your ticket. You can come down the mountain at your own discretion.
- The gondola runs from 9am to 5pm or 4:30pm, depending on the day.
- Cost: Its 25,000 won round trip for an adult, and 20,000 won for children. For one way, its 20,000 won and 16,000 won for adults and children, respectively.
My Advice
Regardless of what time your reservation is for, get there early. The lines in the winter are insane! And they only get worse later in the morning / the early afternoon.
I also recommend getting the earliest possible time to avoid waiting around. This is also true for waiting at the peak. All the people waiting in this line are seeking to go to the peak of Deogyusan and they will likewise want a picture with the peak stone, so to avoid TWO long lines as well as a ton of people on the hiking trail, get the early tickets!
Worth noting that I rode the gondola twice in the summer on weekends, and there was never a line for any part of the experience. This is a winter hiking destination predominately.
My Screenshot Guide to Reserving Your Spot
You can access the gondola information on the Muju Resort’s gondola page, and the reservation can be made through the gondola reservation page. It’s all in Korean, so I have included the following walk-through.
The general information page details the cost of the tickets, the general guidelines for the reservation period, and a comprehensive breakdown of the hours of operation. There is a lot of variation in hours based on the month, but broadly it’s a difference of an hour on opening and closing time.
If you try to click the reservation page outside of the winter season, the site will not load.
In order to reserve you will select the date, the number of people, and the time slot (30 minutes). Only the time slots with the number of openings that match or are greater than your party size will be displayed.
In order to reserve you will need to have Korean phone number. Regardless of if you want to create an account or to make a reservation without an account, you will need to verify your identity which can only be done residents, visa holders / Korean phone number users * Simply having a temporary SIM card is not adequate for using this system.
Below is a sample first screen that will appear when you click the general reservation button.
As online registration is only done for the weekends, each weekend is displayed with commentary. 매진 means sold out, so as you can see below, all the tickets for the 6th/7th and 13th/14th are all sold out. This is very common during the winter for tickets to sell out quickly, so pay attention to when tickets go on sale and try to reserve them as quickly as you can.
The gondola tickets only go on sale 14 days prior at 5pm – that date and time for each of currently unavailable tickets are also listed here. So, for example, the Saturday tickets for the 20th, can be purchased starting on the 7th at 5pm.
Assuming there are tickets available you click the date, and then select 비회원 예약 -This means to make a reservation without an account. This is the point that you will have to verify your identity using your phone number.
After getting though that page you will be able to select / change the date, select a time (purple box on the right) abd the number of people. 5 people is a maximum you can reserve per person per day, so if you have a larger group you will need to have someone else reserve tickets as well. Then you write your phone number and full name.
Once you have completed your reservation you will both get an online reservation confirmation, which you can check like what is below, and you will receive a text confirmation. You can change or cancel your reservation online through the main gondola drop down, I box it off in purple in the above section.
You will take your text message confirmation to the ticket purchase area; it is at this point that you will actually pay for your ticket(s). The name listed on the registration will need to match the person picking up the tickets, but others in your group can wait elsewhere since the ticket purchasing area can be pretty chaotic.
Then you will walk to the long gondola line. I will note that the people running the gondola are not unreasonable, if the line is so long that you miss you spot by a couple minutes it’s not the end of the world. But make sure you don’t lose your ticket as its also your return ticket. If you lose it while hiking, you will have to buy a new one at the peak.
Happy Trekking!
-Aurora
