To all my gear head, outdoorsy friends...

Hiking is enormous in Korea. Granted, it's a little more tame than what we consider hiking. While a typical Korean hiking trail is little more than a fire road, you can be sure that fire road is filled with gung ho, deadly serious hikers, covered in class A gear. It's bitching gear too.

3 weeks ago I was in the southern city of Busan, and somebody pilfered my favorite jacket: a luxurious, puke orange Mountain Hardwear soft shell. I was beside myself. This was a marvelous jacket, and you gear head people, you know what it's like to finally find a jacket that you love. Losing this article was a crushing blow. But, it meant that I could justify buying some bizarre Korean gear.

Luckily, I overheard some people talking about rock climbing at dinner the following night. I butted into their convo to tell them I knew a lot of climbers, and asked them if they did any hiking in the area. These people were hardcore and they definitely knew their shit. I asked them what they thought of all this Korean gear. The dude, who seemed to be the leader, said most of it was pretty bland, but there were a few companies that were actually superior to anything he'd ever seen. I knew that one of these brands, Black Yak, had several stores in Ulsan. Yes!

The next night I dragged myself out to Black Yak in search of a new soft shell. Surely enough, Black Yak was bad ass. I ended up dropping roughly $180 on a soft shell that, I'm proud to say, is far superior to my old Mountain Hardwear. Who knew? I mean, Black Yak doesn't even have a website. So I've decided that I'm going to be the unofficial rep for this brand when I arrive back in the states. That way I can legitimize wasting more money on their gear, which, let's be honest, I'm going to do regardless. So if you really want to sound like a bad ass around the OC house, tell a bunch of people that you have the inside scoop on this "nasty Korean gear..." Get ready Arcteryxx, I'm coming for you!