Ski resort abandoned in Olympic shade

The lodging buildings and the main arcade of Alps Ski Resort sit in a wasteland, which used to be one of the slopes of the resort, located in Goseong County, Gangwon Province, on Feb. 7. Korea Times photos by Choi Won-suk

PyeongChang could decline unless proper management follows

By Nam Hyun-woo

While the PyeongChang Winter Games has started with its colorful ceremony and flashy flames, a massive ski resort, sitting not far from the Games' venues, is abandoned in ruins, with nearby residents watching as the Olympic payoff bypasses their community.

Alps Ski Resort is located in Heul-ri in Goseong County, Gangwon Province -- a 50-minute drive northwest from Yangyang International Airport.

Despite its grand name of Alps, the resort lies on a slope that seems too gentle and small to be described as "Alps." About 200 residents in the rural village of Heul-ri have been growing green peppers for a living.

To enter the resort, visitors have to drive five minutes from the main road. During the short journey, they can easily see the resort is dead as the road takes them past derelict ski rental shops, restaurants and other mom-and-pop stores, whose windows are broken and the products they used to sell lay abandoned in dust. A stray dog was the only living creature that welcomed The Korea Times reporters.

A stray dog wanders in front of an abandoned ski rental shop outside of the resort.

In a disused parking lot for the resort, countless pollocks were drying in the chilly mountainous wind -- dried pollock is a representative food product of Gangwon Province.

The resort opened in 1976 as Korea's second ski resort. It used to be a favorite place for skiers in Korea, occupying 710,000 square meters of land and boasting ample lodging. Since it was the country's northernmost ski slope, the resort received abundant snowfall, allowing skiers to enjoy the sport from November to March.

However, as new ski resorts were built nearer to Seoul, and as Koreans showed less interest in skiing, Alps Resort's popularity declined and eventually it shut down in 2006.

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A rusted pole showing directions to lodging buildings of Alps Ski Resort sits inside the resort.

Inside, the resort is ghostly. A giant clock tower built on one of the big lodging buildings is stopped. Lifts are laid on the ground instead of up on cables and the slopes are overgrown with weeds under a light dusting of snow.

Inside, its main arcade is spookier. At its ticket office, which used to take up to thousands of skiers a day in the 1990s, there is a dirty bed, and the swimming pool is full of weeds, wreckage and leftover objects of the resort. Even accounting books, debt guarantee papers, property documents and securities of the resort's operator, the now-defunct Daeyoung, were scattered all over the arcade, showing how badly the company's finances became.

The swimming pool inside the resort's main arcade is filled with detritus.

A stopped clock sits in front of a worn photograph in the resort's main arcade, which shows the heyday of the resort.

Decommissioned ski lift chairs sits on overgrown ground, which used to be the resort's slope.

Two years after its closure, a company called Alps Seven Resort was selected as a redeveloper of the resort, with Gangwon Province recognizing its ambitious plan of building a wind power plant in the area. But the redevelopment appeared to have stopped in December 2009, as calendars and D-day counters in the resort ended then. According to local reports, the redeveloper was about to put 206 billion into the resort, but failed to pay even a small part of it.
In 2015, the resort briefly reopened with a sledding slope, but failed to continue its operation the following year.

Financial books, property documents and stocks of the resort's now-defunct operator Daeyoung sit among ruins in front of the main arcade.

In this situation, the residents of Heul-ri are suffering. They claim the town deserves to be called "the mecca of Korean skiing," as the resort was one of Korea's oldest and its heritage is "proven by the fact the Korea Ski Museum was located in the town." The museum is also abandoned since Alps Resort closed.

"Gangwon Province and Goseong County offices are also responsible for this mess with their poor administration," a Heul-ri resident said.

According to the town chief, people of Heul-ri have had high hopes for the remodeling of Alps Ski Resort, but now they want the project to be canceled. "This is not because we don't want the remodeling anymore, but because we don't trust redevelopers anymore," the resident said.

He said this is why Heul-ri residents feel bittersweet about the PyeongChang Games.

"If the remodeling project was carried out as planned in 2008, we heard from the authorities that two women's snow events could have been held on the slopes of Alps Ski Resort," he said.

After watching their PyeongChang dream become an illusion, the town chief said residents now want to remodel the wretched resort to an arboretum on their own initiative.

"We have witnessed that skiing is losing its popularity in Korea," another resident said. "If there is no proper management after the Games are over, we fear PyeongChang may face a similar fate."

Ski boots are dumped in front of the rental shop.