 The approach to Battle Mountain and P 'il-bong was much more difficult from the east, the American-held side, than from the west, the North Korean side. On the east side there was no road climbing halfway to the top; from the base of the mountain at the edge of the Haman valley the only way to make the ascent was by foot trail. Climbers took two to three hours to reach the top of P'il-bong from the reservoir area, and required from three to four hours to get on top of Battle Mountain from the valley floor. The turnaround time for supply trains to Battle Mountain was six hours. Often a dispatch runner required eight hours to go up Battle Mountain and come back down. In some places the trail was so steep that climbers had to set up ropes to hold along the side of the trail. North Korean night patrols constantly cut telephone lines. The wire men had a difficult and dangerous job trying to maintain wire communication with units on the mountain. Food, water and ammunition were frequently short for the units at the tops of the peaks.
