The Swiss rock at the 27th Yongpyong International Ski Festival

The Swiss got it all this time: As one of the smallest representative group with only one table at the 27th Yongpyong Ski Festival, our small country won 3 gold medals in the adult, 2 bronze medals in the children and junior category, AND the prize for the best decorated table.
Luckily the event was hosted by the Norwegian Ambassador this year instead of the Swiss Ambassador as per tradition. Otherwise we could have even been accused of nepotism!

As last year, the weather was amazingly sunny and dry, but the temperature was much more moderate this year, so nobody had to freeze to death while watching the ski race. The gala dinner, accompanied by plenty of bottles of red wine from the Wallis, was entertaining as ever.
There was just one downer at this event. I get more and more freaked out about the skiing style of some people in Yongpyong. Too many ski and snowboard way beyond their abilities and have no "ski etiquette" at all. Coming back from Niseko, Japan, where skiing couldn't be more civilized, Yongpyong was a real shocker. While skiing with one of our friend's 6-year-old kid, he got overtaken by a lunatic wanna-be racer on carvers who only missed the kid by a few centimeters. A few weeks earlier, someone we know was hit by such a lunatic and broke an arm. And the worst thing - that lunatic didn't even bother to stop and help the poor guy whose arm he broke.

Which ski resort to choose in Korea?

It's hard to tell why skiing is especially barbaric in Yongpyong (see post above), of which people say it is the best ski resort in Korea. Now we do not quite agree with that statement anymore.
Yongpyong might be the biggest resort, but not necessarily the best. When we skied in High1 resort (Kangwonland) over Xmas this year, we didn't get the feeling that people behaved as uncivilized as in Yongpyong. Besides, although the resort is much smaller, the snow quality tends to be better, and there are a few advanced and expert slopes which were at least as challenging as the ones in Yongpyong, if not more challenging. It could be that a little more advanced skiers, who know what they are doing, tend to go to High1 more than Yongpyong, making it a safer place to ski.

Muju resort is another popular destination, which boasts to have a European flavor and architecture, however, the resort is still far from being what we are used to in Switzerland and Austria. Moreover, the place is extremely crowded, as the slope layout is not very cleverly designed. If you want to go from one mountain side to the other, you need to go all the way down to the base ski lifts and gondola, where you can line up for up to 1.5 hours. The line at the gondola is a bit shorter, but you need to pay extra for it, and at the seat lifts, they have an extra line for members (i.e. the ones who pay millions of wons per year to the resort), who get the priviledge of getting on the lifts quicker - but that means the line for the non-members crowd gets even longer. Last but not least, if you want to stay over for a weekend in the high season, you won't find a place in the nearby hotels as all rooms are reserved for members. Korea is an elitist society in many aspects, and unfortunately, skiing is one of them.

For advanced skiers who do not want to spend millions of wons to be a member of some resort and are looking for relatively civilized skiing, we therefore recommend High1.

These are the English websites of the mentioned resorts for those who are interested:
High1, Yongpyong, Muju