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Four People with Zero Interest in Hiking Stand on a Winter Mountain
Car, the Garden, DAY6’s Dowoon, actor Lee Chae-min, and ALLDAY PROJECT’s Tarzan face a winter mountain. These four aren’t seasoned hiking experts; they’re cast members who previously had little to no interest in hitting the trails. The Netflix variety show ‘Take A Hike!’ captures their very first snowy winter climb.
The program starts with the question posed in its Korean title: Why on earth do we hike? It observes why people with no interest in mountaineering continue to endure grueling treks and what kind of relationships form along the way. Rather than focusing merely on the achievement of reaching the summit, the show highlights the reactions and conversations of these four as they weather the cold, fatigue, and unfamiliar surroundings together. Hiking serves as both the goal and a clever variety show device to reveal their true personalities.
Contrary to expectations of a tearful, moving reaction to the sunrise after a punishing early morning climb, the cast’s first words were quite the opposite. Producer Na Young-seok highlighted this exact moment during the press conference, perfectly summarizing the show’s vibe. Instead of the typical manufactured emotion producers might hope for, complaints, jokes, and unfiltered honesty take front and center. This is the defining charm of the show.
A 10-Episode Journey Released Over Three Weeks
‘Take A Hike!’ premiered on Netflix on August 18. Rather than dropping all 10 episodes on the same day, the series was released sequentially over a three-week period from August 18 to September 1, wrapping up its full story with the addition of episodes 9 and 10 on the final day.
The quartet tackled some of Korea’s most iconic winter mountains, including Seoraksan, Taebaeksan, and Hallasan. Naturally, Korea’s unique hiking culture shines through, especially in scenes where they share gimbap and ramyeon at the summit or rest stops. Moments where things don’t go according to plan span multiple episodes, and the varying weather and terrain of each mountain continuously shift the cast’s reactions.
Thanks to this release schedule, viewers could follow the cast’s initial awkward meetings, their adaptation process, repeated climbs, and evolving dynamics at a steady pace. Unlike binge-watching an entire series at once, this format created space to anticipate the next release. Audiences could watch step-by-step as the bonds forged in previous hikes transformed during their next challenge.
A Four-Person Dynamic Built on Distinct Personalities
The four cast members hail from different professional fields and hold distinct public images. While Car, the Garden and Dowoon both have backgrounds in music, they don’t approach variety shows in the same way. Actor Lee Chae-min and Tarzan of ALLDAY PROJECT also bring entirely different backgrounds and experiences to the table. They share no common hiking experience, nor do they have a pre-existing team dynamic. This very combination fuels the show’s engaging tension.
For them, a winter mountain is an environment where their usual professional skills won’t save them. Instead of showing the polished sides they usually present on stage or on set, they have to cope with draining stamina and plans going awry. Their honest reactions in these moments not only reveal their individual quirks but also fundamentally shift the dynamic among the four.
Their chemistry is far from the stable, seamless teamwork seen among long-time friends. Rather, it is the process of people who barely know each other navigating a tough challenge, figuring out how to communicate, and finding their roles. When one person acts unexpectedly, the other three react in turn. These differences become the catalysts for laughter, conflict, and eventual cooperation.
Turning Hiking into a Character-Driven Narrative
Hiking variety shows can easily fall into the trap of solely focusing on whether the cast reaches the peak or simply showing off the scenery. ‘Take A Hike!’ uses the mountain as a backdrop for a character-driven narrative. As their stamina depletes during the ascent, it becomes impossible for the cast to maintain their usual curated personas. The words and actions that slip out in these moments offer a direct look into who they really are.
The setup of enduring near-extreme conditions together deeply impacts how their friendship forms. The show doesn’t pretend the cast are close from the start. Moving toward the same goal, they check each other’s pace, share moments of exhaustion, and build relationships organically. The progression of the hike and the evolution of their bond unfold in parallel.
What matters here isn’t specialized knowledge about mountaineering. The fact that the cast knows little and cares even less about hiking actually puts the audience right there with them. Viewers with no hiking experience can relate to their burdens and questions, while seasoned hikers find a different kind of entertainment in watching the reactions of complete beginners.
A New Experiment by the Na Young-seok Division
The show is co-directed by producers Na Young-seok and Park Hyun-yong. Interestingly, hiking wasn’t the original concept. The two PDs got the idea after tagging along with writer Lee Woo-jung, an avid hiker. They translated the hypothesis that people with zero interest in mountains can bond faster by suffering together into a variety show format. The Na Young-seok team’s signature style—focusing on unexpected character reactions and shifting dynamics—perfectly meshed with the snowy winter peaks.
A mountain doesn’t play by the rules set by producers. The cast’s stamina, emotions, and relationships change by the minute, making on-the-ground reactions far more important than any pre-planned scenes. While the production team gives the four men specific challenges, they don’t dictate the outcome. Instead, they just follow along as the cast figures things out.
From an industry standpoint, the program steps away from traditional host-driven formats. By grouping four individuals from entirely different fields into a fixed ensemble, the show tests whether they can grow into a new variety crew. The core content isn’t the talent of one specific person, but the relationships woven among the four.
The Initial Question Lingers Even After the End
With the release of the 10th episode on September 1, the quartet’s first winter mountain journey came to a close. However, the question posed by the title doesn’t necessarily demand a single, definitive answer. Simply learning to love hiking isn’t the only marker of change. Shifting how they understand one another after enduring hardships together is an equally important takeaway.
The four men who first stood on that winter mountain started at the exact same place but absorbed the experience in entirely different ways. These differences blend together to create the unique chemistry of ‘Take A Hike!’. The heart of the program lies not in the altitude or the records, but in how people placed in an unfamiliar environment slowly learn about each other.
This project is both a hiking variety show and an experiment by the Na Young-seok division to discover a fresh cast combination. Whether the bonds forged over these 10 episodes will end with this snowy journey or lead to another challenge remains open. The shared experience of climbing a winter mountain has successfully molded four non-hikers into a unified variety team.
Source: Netflix Official Program Information and Release Schedule, 2026-08-18~2026-09-01; Yonhap News, 2026-08-12.
