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Kilimanjaro: The Trekking Guide to Africa's Highest Mountain - 2nd Edition (Trailblazer Guides) | 
| Author: Henry Stedman
Publisher: Trailblazer Publications
Category: Book
Buy New: £10.99
New (10) Used (3) from £7.21
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 5077
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2Rev Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.7 x 0.8
ISBN: 1873756917
Dewey Decimal Number: 916.7826044
EAN: 9781873756911
ASIN: 1873756917
Publication Date: October 10, 2006
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
'The' pocket guide to Africa's great white mountain December 4, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Stedman's trekking guide to Kilimanjaro really is a gem of a guide. It provides just about all the information you might need to help you conquer Africa's great white peak. A mine of practical information that will help take you from planning your trip to the summit and which you will probably find you take with you on your way up the mountain.Certainly when I turned Kilimanjaro into Kili half the party I was with had a copy of this book with them!
Henry Stedman covers his subject very methodically taking you from the early planning of which tour companies to use or if you arrange your trek on arrival which trekking agencies to use. The equipment you will need and the health precautions you should take. He progresses through the practicalities of how to get to Tanzania even giving a brief guide to the ins and outs of travelling via Nairobi's somewhat haphazard airport and city. A brief description of Kilimanjaro airport and practicalities precedes more extensive descriptions of the major towns around the base of the Mountain and finally he moves on to the meat of the book - climbing the mountain itself.
Climbing the mountain is where this book really earns it's keep. Stedman starts with a quick summary of the major issues you might encounter, which is principally altitude sickness and what to do to avoid it and treat it before getting into an extensive description of each of the major routes. On each of these he does an excellent job describing the route, the practicalities, waymarks, features of the trek distances covered and altitude gained. Even if you weren't using a guide and porters this book could be enough to steer you up the mountain (although trying to climb Kili without a guide and porters is just silly as if you can afford to get to Tanzania you can afford to give a little bit more back to the local economy). Its second edition is worth getting, not just because the mountain changes as glaciers retreating and routes are altered, but because the second edition is much more comprehensive.
Flaws in the book. Well Stedman describes the flora, fauna and people of the region but attempts to do so in little more than ten pages. Far too short but then again this is a practical travel guide not a travelogue. The maps used for each section of the routes are just sketch maps and really these should be supplemented with proper maps, or was Stedman trying to prevent people using this guide to avoid paying for local porters and guides? If those are flaws then they are flaws that can be excused.
Compact and practical to take with you and comprehensive enough to help plan your trip from fireside to summit. Buy this book follow it's advice and it will make your ascent much easier or at least as easy as climbing 20 thousand feet is ever going to be. Buy it!
Exactly what I was looking for November 25, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was looking for a book with frank, honest and impartial advice about trekking on Kilimanjaro. This is it, with far more information besides. It is not JUST a reference book - I have read it with continued interest from cover to cover. The one minor criticism I have is the prolific use of sub-text boxes which are distracting and break up the flow of reading.
A brilliant guidebook November 22, 2006
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
What a great guidebook! We had to wait ages for this book to arrive (it finally arrived last month), as apparently there was some delay in publication. But we were determined to wait after reading all the rave reviews to the first edition. And after spending the best part of a month reading through it, we're glad we did. Though we have yet to climb the mountain, this book has already come in useful with its extensive reviews of trekking companies in the UK and Tanzania , whilst its descriptions of the routes are by some distance the most detailed we've come across. It's also a surprisingly funny and well-written book. A couple of our friends who climbed Kilimanjaro last year said that their guide said it was by far and away the best book on the mountain and carried a copy with him `just in case' and used it to identify the mountain flowers!
Well done Trailblazers on a cracking book. Now we've just got to get to the top!
Fantastic!! No need for your Lonely Planet or Rough Guide!! April 24, 2006
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought this book a few months before I actually went away to climb Kili as well as buying a Lonely Planet and Rough Guide for Tanzania. There was no need to buy either the Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide as you get everything and more in this book.
Quite simply, if you are new to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, or if you think your interested in doing it, BUY THIS BOOK. Its all you will need in the form of a guidebook (and probably more) and it is small enough to fit in your rucksack for when you do go to climb it. Im sure that even some of the suggestions assisted me in getting to the top!
Having checked the market for competitors, this book is the finest by a long, long way.
Good luck for when you attempt!!!
indispensible guide to the mountain January 13, 2006
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
Went up Kili last year, found the book extremely useful before departure and during the trek (Machame route) The section on acute mountain sickness should be compulsory reading for anyone attempting to get to the top.
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