Explore Mount Kilimanjaro (Rucksack Reader)

Rating:
Summary: A plea from the armchair walker
Review: Don't throw this book away or "save your money" as one other reviewer tells us. I can't speak about how effective the book is for people actually trekking up Kili - but I know someone who's done it and carried the book along: reckons it's extremely effective and still leaves plenty of room in the rucksack for other essentials.
But me, I'm an armchair walker - I can hardly walk upstairs without puffing nowadays (though managed a few thousand metres in the Andes in the past). To me the value of this book is that it is eminently readable and entirely realistic - so it brings to life a walk I shall never take and almost makes me feel I've done the exertion, seen the views, and cut that notch on my Alpenstock.
If I were spending a few thousand euros on travelling to and up Kili, the cost of this book would be negligible, but I have no evidence from my studies of the mountain that it is inaccurate or unhelpful or poor value for money. Surely those are the important criteria for judging a book like this?

T'riffic trekking to all readers - even to those constrained nowadays to the armchair variety!

Eric from Vienna, December 2003

Rating:
Summary: Colorful but not particularly helpful to climbers
Review: It's a nice travelogue but it is not much help to someone looking to climb the mountain itself.

Look to Carmichael's "Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro" for that.

Rating:
Summary: An absolute MUST for forward planning
Review: This is the 4th book in this series that we have used and it is packed with useful information to make a good trip even better. It is written in an easy to read and extremely descriptive manner and is not remotely condescending, as some guide books undoubtedly are. My husband has devoured every page in the pursuit of achieving one of his lifelong ambitions and we are booked to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in August of this year. After studying this book in depth, we have chosen the Machame route and feel that we are very well prepared and the information provided will be invaluable. As keen trekkers, we have tried the rest and now only use the BEST! Highly recommended.