PYEONGCHANG - I've been visiting PyeongChang county in south central Gangwon province for the past eight years. I sometimes go in the winter but not for the skiing. I quit skiing in South Korea a year ago, frustrated with the mediocre slopes and poor quality snow. I come to the region for a few trout streams that tend to fish well during the dry, semi-snowless winter months.

Yes, semi-snowless could be an adjective to describe the countryside of PyeongChang county. Most sorely lacking is snow, and snow is needed to make a mountain town that people want to visit. South Korean winters are dry and precipitation is scarce. Snow comes in spurts and there are a few good dumpings a year and then the white stuff quickly melts off.

I was fly-fishing a stream in the PyeongChang region this winter. I wore a light shirt in the afternoon and mayflies hatched from the water. The ground was barren, brown and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspection team was arriving the upcoming weekend. The only snow to be seen held tight on the upper reaches of north-facing mountain peaks. It was one of the warmest winters on record.

There are some regional snow festivals in Korea (in Taebaaek and Naejangsan) and because of the lack of regular snowfall, festival activities often risk being canceled. There is one account of organizers resorting to rituals offering cow heads as a sacrifice for snow from the sky. Now and then there is a heavy snowfall, which usually put roadways into total chaos, and just before the IOC team arrived in PyeongChang last February, they luckily got the snow they prayed for. If the IOC team had arrived a week earlier, they would have laughed and returned to the plane.

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Copyright © James Card.