This episode's name is "Snow Race - Battle of the Strongest".... "battle" indeed... we had to struggle through knee-deep snow to get up to the ski slope of Wellihilli Park , a ski resort about 3 hours away from Seoul (the artistes and staff drove directly up through a side road we didn't know of earlier >.> ) For the first time, Hyeong Kon isn't alone, Seungyeop came with him to participate too. I have no idea why Seungyeop was chosen, he's not exactly athletic or strong, so either he left a good impression from the 130106 masse-DT and they requested for him or he volunteered because he likes the cold...?? ^^;;


Anyway today the recording started at 11am, I had wanted to be there 1030 but because my VIXX fan friends whom I had arranged to go with overslept.... we ended up getting there 1230 and totally missed the opening. I did manage to see Seungyeop do a test run for the game... Hyeong Kon did not do any, he was the first pair to actually play so he went into it blind.

Anyway once again no obstacle course... today was all making use of the ski slope. First game was them taking turns sliding down the slope on this small circular sled, 2 sleds at a time, fly into a pit full of white styrofoam balls, and compete to grab the one flag at the opposite end of the pit. Hyeong Kon and Seungyeop, in seperate matches, both won against their opponents (DT regulars! Well done boys!), and could go into the second game. At this point, I had been on the slope for almost 3 hours, felt like my fingers and toes were all getting frostbitten (they hurt like a bitch), so I went down the slope into the sheltered building to warm up a bit (I make it sound easy... it was actually a 15 min precarious trek downslope through the above-mentioned deep snow, 1 way. T_T)... 

The "a bit" stretched to an almost 1 hour break, I had to struggle to get back up the slope and when I got there.... one of my A-Light friends who didn't leave said that the boys had a break from the recording and they came over to greet and chat to the fans just 10 mins ago. Oh no... my photo opportunity.... T_T
 Anyway when I got back they had already changed and gone up the slope to start the 2nd game - by 'change', I mean tied a board to their back and put on a HUGE camouflage-print poncho - it was hilarious watching them 'turtles' labor up the slope, but I was confused as to what the game was.... then I realised they were to slide down the slope on their backs and see who gets down first. O_o This was a different slope from the one used in game 1, this was more gentle and there was a leveling-off in the middle before the slope continued... so obviously some contestants with not enough momentum got stuck floundering there like overturned tortoises and had to manually propel themselves with only their feet, further back over the edge - like our maknae Seungyeop. Haha. (I did not manage to spot Hyeong Kon as everyone was dressed in those camo-print ponchos and fans had to stand really really far.... ><'')  Basically, with this game, both Hyeong Kon and Seungyeop were 'out', as only top 4 gets to progress directly to next round.



BUT after this match was the wild card game - the 'outs' were divided into teams of 5, each team would slide down the slope in a BIG... float(?) and compete to be the fastest to reach and stack up the 6 big blocks assigned to them at the bottom of the slope, 2 teams playing at once. They were given wooden paddles to make their floats move, but the thing is, if you're over-zealous with the paddles, you'd go too fast and FAR overshoot the blocks, as they soon found out... (I can't remember which team it was, they went so far they flew into and knocked a camera+tripod and the guy manning it over his feet...!) ... so the trick is to 'bail ship' once they got close. (Actually this seems kinda dangerous, the float was going pretty fast and the slope's packed snow wasn't THAT soft...) Hyeong Kon failed to and went flying through the air as the float overshot and went over the embankment - good thing he landed on either the soft float or snow, uninjured as he immediately clambered back up and scrambled back to attempt to help his teammates in the game - though they already lost as the other team already completed.... Seungyeop's team actually excelled, out of the 4, but only 4 out of 5 members of the winning team get to go into the finals, so they had to re-do Game 1, this time competing among themselves by diving for a timer button to stop the watch running instead of the flag - so they went 1-by-1, not in pairs like previously. Seungyeop was the first to go and had to sit there waiting as all his teammates that went after him consequetively bettered his timing - so he found himself out of the finals too, in the end. T_T



Oh - and right after Seungyeop went upslope to prepare for his wildcard Game 1 repetition, bored and lonely(?) Hyeong Kon came over to speak to the fans, even accepting all the snacks, letters etc the fans had to give him (I passed him my letter for Jaehyung at this point).


When the finals were going on, the A-JAX fans (there were about 7 of us remaining at this point... VIXX had 5 100% had 0... totally different from when I got there at 1230pm. Haha) were really bored and praying for it to be over so that the members will come over here, say their ending goodbyes then we can go back - but to our surprise, the members came over to give out packaged nuts while the equipment team was sorting some problems with the pit lighting/cameras out! (I missed the Snickers Hyeong Kon gave out at the last recording... why nuts this time. T_T I hate nuts...)  But I took the chance to snap some close-up shots - after apologising to Hyeong Kon about having to use flash because it was too dark already.... T_T 



Then was the closing, which I didn't even bother with pics as they had their backs turned towards us... after A-JAX spent a long time thanking the staff (HK probably did the leader thing and brought SY around, I guess this is part of the reason he's been called back again and again to DT and the permanent members seem to like and be very friendly with him...), so long that we thought they would forget about us and go back directly to the car - afterall VIXX had came over to greet and thank their fans much earlier than our A-JAX boys - HK & SY came running, chatted with us (I took the chance to congratulate Seungyeop for his MC stint and told him "ganbatte kudasai", and thanked Hyeong Kon for helping me with passing Jaehyung's letter...) for quite a few minutes, until the manager came and reminded them that they had to go. ^^ This was the nice manager though, so I yelled "Sugohassheosumnida, manager-nim!" and he (and the boys) laughed and waved at me too.

We immediately left after that - as I was dragging myself off the slope, feeling that my entire feet is numb, I looked at my watch - 7.30pm. Recording was slated to start from 11am and DT is usually very punctual with the starting, so... 8.5 hr of recording. This is one of the longest DT recordings I've ever been to. T_T And in snowland, of all places...

Of note during this recording, Hyeong Kon was being a very good hyung to Seungyeop... when Seungyeop was asked questions that stumped him (something about a DT regular that he want to emulate or replace?? But SY doesn't watch DT, he doesn't know the current regular's names very well...) HK jumped in to help him out and to explain, he also advised Seungyeop on what to look do/look out for during the game, esp. the 'bail-ship' portion... and I also saw when SY came off the pit/slope after finishing a game, HK went to fuss over him and help him with removing his helmut and gear etc... ^^  역시 좋은형이다~ 우리 곤오빠!



I actually have 145 photos edited and uploaded on my photobucket gallery in total ... so, enjoy the show~