Remembering Eric Hill

The late Eric Hill, an adventurer who appeared on the U.S. reality show “The Bachelorette,” traveled to North Korea last year as part of a personal mission to visit every U.N.-recognized country in the world. / Korea Times file

By Kim Young-jin

The U.S. reality show “The Bachelorette” had an exceedingly difficult task this week as it opened its 10th season.

In April, after the show had finished taping, a contestant named Eric Hill died in a paragliding accident. For the program, this raised serious questions about how to move forward.

In the season opener that aired Monday, it became apparent that The Bachelorette would do this by showcasing his outgoing and adventurous spirit.

Some of those people who met Hill during his trip to the Korean Peninsula might agree with this decision.

As the show opened Chris Harrison paid tribute to Hill, an adventurer who was seeking to travel to every corner of the world.

"Eric passed away shortly after concluding his filming on this show," Harrison said. "In the coming weeks, you'll see that Eric was a vibrant man. Every day, he impressed us with his passion and courageous spirit. He will be greatly missed. And we dedicate this season to him."

When he visited North and South Korea in April last year, Hill was in the early stages of his mission to visit every U.N.-recognized country in world record time. He called the journey the “Global Odyssey” and recorded his activities on his website.

Tragically, the mission ended about one year later, when, gliding off a steep hillside in Utah, his parachute collapsed. He was 31.

During an interview, Hill was relentlessly positive about life, travel and people. He said his mission was to "show that awesome exists in every country."

He had a method for finding this “awesomeness.” In each place he visited, he did a back flip and a hand stand, and got a high-five from at least one person. He also wanted to do one adventurous activity in each place, such as rock climbing in Nepal or doing a handstand on the Great Wall of China.

None of that was easy in North Korea, the most isolated country in the world.

"You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to get those things done," he recalled. "First of all, they don't understand what a high-five is."

Hill accomplished what he set out to do in the North, executing a flip and handstand during a visit to the northern side of the tense Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the Koreas.

However, he said the bigger accomplishment for him was to observe and interact -- to the limited extent possible -- with North Korean people.

Although travelers are strictly monitored in the North, Hill recalled having a few spontaneous moments. When he visited a skate park, for instance, he was able to get a high-five from a local. "One kid fell and so there was a cluster of kids. A girl did something cool on her skates, so we showed her what to do (for a high-five), and she followed suit."

The adventurist said traveling taught him that people are generally the same despite political or other tensions.

"You can't understand a place until you actually step foot there and see what the people are going through,” he said.

Judging by the tribute paid to him on The Bachelorette, Hill brought a lot of “awesome” to the show as well.