The World On arirang

Roger Shepherd is a trekker from New Zealand, and the one and only person in the world to have hiked the entire range of the Baekdu-daegan. Shepherd’s connection with Korea began in 2000 when he visited Korea to travel, and this was when he first felt a strong attraction to Korea’s natural environment. He then went back to New Zealand and became a police officer, and in 2006, he undertook his first venture to hike the Baekdu-daegan. From this experience, he had a deeply ingrained impression of the great mountain range of Korea so that he returned to Korea in 2007 with a resolute determination of hiking the entire range of the Baekdu-daegan. He then made it his mission to share his amazing experience of it and his book “Baekdu Daegan Trail: Hiking Korea’s Mountain Spine” is one of the outcomes. The book is the first guidebook in English for trekking the alpine spire of Korea which includes detailed maps and charts of Korean mountains as well as historic and scenic sites to be discovered along the trail with background notes on their cultural and ecological significance. For him, it was a labor of love for mountaineering and he strives to introduce the beauty of the Baekdu-daegan to the world through publishing and photography.