Yongpyong Ski Resort

The USO offers ski trips at pretty cheap prices for anyone who is an American citizen-military, dependents, even ex-pats. Actually, they offer a variety of trips to different places, tours of the DMZ, palaces. You name it...
The trip we purchased included transportation to and from the Yongpyong ski resort (a 3 hour bus ride on the way there....4 or 5 hours on the way back), gear rental (skiis or snowboard), and a gondola pass (good for the regular ski lifts as well). We got to the mountain at about 10 a.m., but it wasn't until noon that we had finished getting our equipment, and got in line for the ski lift. The line for ski equipment was so incredibly long...I felt horrible, since Chris and Rachel had gotten their snowboards in about 5 minutes, and my skiis took at least 1/2 hour. After grabbing a Steff Hotdog in the lodge, we headed out onto the snow. Chris had to show me how to put on my skiis, but he forgot to explain how to get them off (I had quite a time figuring that out later). We stood in the most outrageous line for the ski lift, and made it onto the bunny slope after about 45 minutes. The first time down was quite a disaster for me, and I didn't even get to see Rachel and Chris' attempts on the snowboards. From what they tell me, they sat down almost every 10 feet, which I can believe, because once I got to the bottom of the hill, I waited for about 10 minutes and finally they showed up! I made it down pretty fast...a lot faster than I wanted to in fact. I didn't know how to "snowplow", so I was headed straight downhill at what felt like 100 mph. Since I also didn't know how to steer, I was headed straight for other skiiers, and fell twice, just to avoid flattening the poor things. The second trip down was a lot snower, after a quick lesson in "braking" from Chris. At the end of the day, I was ruling the bunny slope-going around people, zigzagging back and forth, going as fast or slow as I wanted. Of course, every time I started feeling cocky, I bit it. Usually in front of a bunch of kids who were zooming around like little demons who belonged on the expert slopes, not on the beginner's little hill. Chris and Rachel graduated to the intermediate slope after a couple hours, and had quite a blast-eventually they said they were able to stay on their feet most of the way down. Overall, I think we got about 4 hours of skiing (minus the waiting for skilift time) before we headed back the lodge to turn in our gear, and get some hot cocoa! We sat discussing our various achievements as we waiting for the rest of the USO group, and the bus ride home. All in all, I think a total of 8 hours in a bus for barely 4 hours of skiing is pushing the normal boundaries of what I would call "worth it". But we did have a blast, and for the first-timers, it was quite an experience. Of course, we plan on going back, but this time we might do it with a hotel room, and a whole day of skiing! We'll see...
Oh, I almost forgot, all the pics we took that day are here.