A clean-up and repair program by Korea On the Rocks Initiatives has allowed a natural climbing route to be reopened.

The Bueongsae rock climbing area near Miryang, North Gyeongsang Province, had been closed for more than five years.

KOTRi founder Bryan Hylenski had gone to climb on Bueongsae with his family when he was told the route was closed.

After a bit of persuading, he convinced those running the site to let him climb there anyway.

Hylenski was impressed by the beauty of the area and the range of routes available on the crag.

Seeing the site’s closure as a loss to climbing enthusiasts in Korea, he spent the next year-and-a-half seeking to negotiate with the owner about reopening the site.

“His concerns were primarily due to former climbers not respecting the land and the landowner’s previous requests for changes to be made in 2008,” said Hylenski.

“When those changes didn’t occur and (there was a) lack of respect for his property, including trash, camping, stealing of property and destroying the surrounding environment, he decided to close down.”

There were also some safety issues with the wall.

“Many of the routes have old rusted bolts and anchors that could fail if someone were to fall on them,” said Hylenski. “There is also a lot of loose rock, so only climbing can help clear out the loose rock and dirt on the routes.”

KOTRi arranged to work with Busan Climbers to rebolt the entire wall, make it safe, add a sign outlining the rules for use of the crag, on top of a general cleanup of the area.

The first round of repairs was completed last month, with financial support from Adidas. Hylenski said they had replaced 90 percent of the anchors and about 40 percent of the bolts on the most popular routes. They also had a sign put up in English and Korean explaining the rules.

While the project is ongoing, with the remaining rebolting work and the installation of a toilet for climbers yet to be finished, the crag, which has about 25 routes, is open to climbing now.

“We hope that all who visit the area will respect the landowner’s terms of use because if we don’t, this area will be closed again, much faster than it took to re-open,” said Hylenski.

You can find out more about KOTRi at www.kotri.org.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)