Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award: Baek-asan and Ongeongsan.

My best photos are probably those of the students. It was them that the trip was about! However, for obvious reasons, these are not included unless they are some way in the distance and walking away from the camera.

Baek-asan 28 March 2026

While this hike was well within my means, I struggled to keep up with the six 15 year-old [Year 10] students in my group. I was probably carrying a bit more weight, both body weight and in my pack, with plenty of spare food and clothing, plus first aid kit. In the practice, the students carried tents and Trangias, which slowed them down to nearer my pace, but not this time!

We did the route from north to south, continuing to Ongseongsan the next day. Some of the groups did the routes from south to north meeting up at the same government-owned accommodation overnight. This was decided according to which airport they were heading for afterwards. This was the first weekend of the holidays so they were heading home afterwards. There is a splendid "sky bridge" connecting minor tops to the north of the main summit. The students walked back along it before returning to the south side.

There was then a pleasant ridge walk to the Jeongsangseok (정상석) ​that marked the 810 metre summit of Baek-asan.

The route down to the south has some steep sections that are really easy scrambles. Korea is very safety conscious, so there are fixed ropes that they can use to prevent any falls. While the students were fitter than I, they are not used to mountain terrain. While they are meant to navigate, I led the way. I told them to face the rock and spread their feet to create a stable triangle. It seemed to fall on deaf ears and most faced outwards and went down on their bottoms. I definitely had the cleanest trousers at the end of this walk!

The flower is Rhododendron mucronulatum flower, also known as the Korean rhododendron. These do not seem to take over the hillsides like those in North Wales.

My footwear was better suited to the mountains, so I appeared to be a little quicker than them going downhill, but once we hit the road and had to go back uphill and with our accommodation in sight, they left me for dust! We arrived back early afternoon, being the second of six groups to arrive back at base. It was time to freshen up and drink lots of water. It had been warm T-shirt weather all day. Though not excessively hot, there was a dryness to the air and reports of high pollution levels blown over from China. The total ascent was similar to many "Munro days" and we passed very little running water to wet out caps and cool off. I had finished my two litres of fluids: approximately 1.5 litres of water and 0.5 litres of Powerade. I had not eaten as much as the students as they had eaten while waiting for me!

Ongseongsan 29 March 2026

During the practice on Jeju, the students had camped and some students needed to be chased to take down their tents and clear up their rubbish. "Whose tent is this?", "Kev's", "Where is he", "We don't know". [NB I have changed the boy's name]. There were not such issues this time, maybe because they had been threatened with not being passed. While the boy's lodges stank of teenage boys with the torn off ends of pockets of noodles and Haribo sweets strewn about the place, they did an excellent job of cleaning up the next morning. I assume that the girls were even better in this regard - probably less mess to start with?

Two of us had woken them up at 6.00 am on the dot. I had turned on the lights and lingered to make sure that they were all moving. When a colleague checked in on them later, it seems that some of them had turned off the lights and gone back to sleep! Nevertheless, with only a little bit of jollying along, they were fully packed with a clear room inspections in time to load their bags on the two buses. More about this later!

We started off downhill as out route dropped down into the valley before ascending the other side. I tried to be clever and take a little shortcut to get ahead of them. In doing so, I misled them slightly to after directing them 100 metres or so in the wrong direction, we had to turn back. I felt a little bad about this, and perhaps a little embarrassed. When they later took a wrong turn and I put them right (they were navigating but I was under instructions not to let them got he wrong way for too long as we did not want to miss the flights), I said "Now we're quits!". One of the girls looked at me horrified. She thought I had suggested that we quit!!!! One has to be careful when using slang and idioms with non-native speakers of English!

I took very few photographs. I take far more when walking alone. I use getting the right composition as an excuse to take a break and catch my breath. One part that I do not have any photographs of is the staircase of 536 steps. I had to pause to catch my breath several times. Had I been on my own, I would have taken them at a gentler pace and possibly would not have stopped for a rest until reaching the top.

The summit is only 572 metres but it feels higher and we had probably already done a good 200 metres of ups and downs before heading up Ongsonsan. At one point, one of the students asked me about my age and then started making comparisons between me and their grandparents! It think that they were actually quite impressed by how active I am at my age.

The route down is more straightforward than for Baek-asan. There is another "sky bridge" which walkers can walk down to and walk across, though it is blocked off at the far end. I was told that students like to jump up and down on it and upset each other's balance. It was suggested that we skipped that bit as we needed to get them to Yeosu airport. I needed a rest and a bite to eat. I had not eaten anything since breakfast. I tended to move slowly ahead, while they finished off eating. They would soon come flying past me. One of the girls would always smile and say "see you!" There is quite a big drop down steep stairs to the start of the sky bridge. Realising that the route did not continue beyond the bridge, they turned back a bit confused. One of the boys looked up and said "Mr Mann, why are you still up there?" I pointed over my left shoulder and shouted back "because the way down is over there!"

Having eaten and not unnecessarily used up any energy going out to the bridge and back, plus having sturdier boots with a better tread, I was just ahead of them for the rest of the way down, only stopping to allow them to make decisions at junctions in the path. One of the girls did have a weak ankle from a previous injury, incurred before the trip and it was great to see them helping her down the more awkward bits. I left it to them to help her as it is about them being a team with minimal interference from me. She had been incredibly fast on the uphill and road sections. They are not very confident on steep loose stones. They tend to lean back too much instead of putting their weight over their feet and then slip onto their bums. I have to say that they were an amazing team and really looked after each other. There was never any bickering or complaining and they were an exceptionally strong team.

When we joined the road they rested for a few minutes before heading the last kilometre or so down the road. Once they saw the coach, they were running! 

It was at this point that I had doubts about which bus I had put my larger rucksack in - the coach going to Yeosu for flights to Gimpo [Seoul] or the coach going to Gwangju for our flight to Jeju. We had a look but could not find my pack. It is a fairly distinctive 35 year-old Lowe Alpine pack [Made in Ireland - When did they stop making them in Ireland?]. I just hoped that it was on the other coach. We jumped in the rental-car that was used by the D of E coordinator and headed for Gwangju. On arrival, the staff and students who had walked south to north were already there and I instantly spotted my rucksack. The burgers and fries had been ordered and paid for in advance, and were on their way. We in fact were too early to check in. I hope that the Yeosu crowd caught their flight, despite my best efforts to the contrary!

My seat was 28A. It never occurred to me that this was the front row of the plane! Why does it not start at 1?! This meant that I annoyed people trying to get back to the front. Some people were clearly not impressed one bit! One interesting thing of note about Gwangju airport. It is Both a civilian and military airport. Usually the air hostesses tell you to open your blinds. Here, the blinds are closed when you board the plane and you MUST keep them closed. One of my colleagues thinks that he saw a Northrop B-2 Spirit while hiking. Korea may be used by the USA as a refuelling point before heading to the Middle East? Perhaps it was just a training flight.

On arrival back at the school, as the students got off, I alternately said "Well done!" and "Thank you!". I had experienced a part of Korea that was new to me, doing something that I have enjoyed doing all my life and bagged a Korean Corbett in the process. Their participation in the D of E gave me this opportunity of sharing two wonderful days making memories.