Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir, Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea
By mid-afternoon, Stokey and Lee were well up into the range of rugged mountains that ran along the western side of the Chosin Reservoir area. Using snowshoes to cross the flat stretches between the peaks and ridgelines would have made for faster travel, but they stuck to the rocky edges where shadows masked their movement and they left no visible tracks in the snow. The white winter camouflage gear they were wearing would provide relatively good concealment from aerial observation, but it wouldn’t be much help if the North Koreans began to search with thermal-imaging equipment.
They needed to find a place somewhere up high and fairly distant from the reservoir, hole-up to rest and plan a route, and then push on a
