Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro [Paperback]

Stephen Carmichael (Author), Susan Stoddard (Author), Rick Ridgeway (Author), Neville Shulman (Author), Robert M. Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2002

Have you ever considered climbing to the top of Africa? Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point on the continent of Africa at 19,340 feet. But unlike most of the world's highest mountains, Mount Kilimanjaro can be climbed by the "average" person. If you want to learn more about cliimbing Mount Kilimanjaro, then this is the book for you! Carmichael and Stoddard describe the process of planning, preparation, and execution of their Mount Kilimanjaro adventure. Their expertise in the biological sciences gives credence to their recommendations for physical training and their precautions taken to prevent altitude sickness. The book is intended to be a step-by-step guide for training, making arrangements, gearing up, and preparing for potential medical problems, time differences and language barriers. They offer hiking guidelines, mental strategies, and even photography techniques. Their diary of the six-day climb gives a vivid description of how they made it up the mountain and back down.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you manage to stand on the roof of Africa, you will experience the kind of exhilaration which comes but rarely in an individual's lifetime. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is an intriguing and stimulating book. It should be carried inside a backpack, knapsack, suitcase, or even a jacket pocket and referred to constantly and will save the climber, trekker, or even tourist no end of trouble." -- Neville Shulman in the foreword of the book --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Author

I wanted to share my concerns about a reader's review of Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro posted on Amazon.com. This anonymous contributor ("a reader from Buffalo") compares climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to visiting Space Mountain in Disneyland. This is worrisome because some people who read this review may not take the proper preparation that is needed to make a safe ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro.

This point was brought home to me by a letter sent to me in November 2003 from a veterinarian in Wisconsin who almost died on Mount Kilimanjaro. She asked me to emphasize that there are real life-threatening risks involved at these altitudes. She and I talked on the phone, and I must say that her point is a good one, and I agree with her. You will also note our Memorial in the second edition of Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to Dr. Amran Cohen, an internationally-renowned pediatric cardiac surgeon, who died on Mount Kilimanjaro. The threat is real.

I will add that most of the customer reviews are very positive, and several of those emphasize the inherent dangers to be expected. A few other reviews are negative (apparently, they don't like my writing style) but they don't trivialize the task, unlike the reader from Buffalo.

Stephen W. Carmichael, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Editor-in-Chief, Clinical Anatomy
Professor and Chair of Anatomy
Professor of Orthopedic Surgery
Mayo Clinic

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Medi-ed Pr; 2nd edition (September 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0936741163
• ISBN-13: 978-0936741161
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Travel > Africa > Tanzania

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book needs to be edited professionally, October 12, 2000

By 

K Bloomer (Alloa, Clacks, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (Paperback)

These authors climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and they want to tell you about it. Although their husband-and-wife hearts are in roughly the right place, in their haste to print they have bypassed the editing stage. A professional editor would have checked their facts and deleted the more embarrassingly personal bits.

It's easy to list samples of their factual errors: Kilimanjaro was never in Kenya, Queen Victoria did not give it to Kaiser Wilhelm, who was not her cousin, nor is Mount Rosa the highest mountain in the Alps.

Less forgivable is the self-absorption: if Susan Stoddard's training really culminated in "the exceedingly boring goal of two hours' continuous stair-climbing", she must be unaware of the complete irrelevance of those muscle groups to the rough terrain and steep descent on this mountain.

Their trip to Zermatt was misguided. This Swiss ski resort is too low, too expensive and too far away to be a sensible way of pre-acclimatising for Kilimanjaro. Finally, once you have told your readers that you took five cameras, you cannot defend such muddy, amateur black-and-white photos.

While there are some good things in this book (for example its moon tables), what it really underlines is the need for somebody to write a well-researched, sensible and, above all, well-photographed book along similar lines.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very helpful for planning your climb, April 3, 2000

By 

T L (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (Paperback)

This book impresses upon the reader the difficulty of the climb, the necessity of preparation, and the types of preparations one has to make. Especially helpful is the full moon calendar (we can't imagine climbing to the summit in the total darkness). All four members of our party made it to the top, and this should be recommendation enough.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide, December 22, 2003

By 

GEORGE R. FISHER (Boston MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (Paperback)

It is frequently said of Mt. Kilimanjaro that it's not a "technical" climb; the implication being that it's not so difficult. But people have died trying and only half who make the attempt make the summit.

Nonetheless, the process is not complicated; arduous, but not complicated. All you need to start is some idea of what to expect and what to do. This book gives these things to you in a simple format, easily read, with instructions that are straightforward.

Kilimanjaro is far away for most of us, in a country we know virtually nothing about, on a continent that is always seen by the Westerner as dark and mysterious. Altitude sickness and its more serious friends, edema, must be confronted (20,000 feet is no joke) and the weather is variable to say the least ... starting in a rain forest and ending on a frozen snowfield four miles up.

Diseases must be prepared for, as must travel and physical conditioning and numerous other details. Carmichael does a good job of laying all this out and setting you on your way.

The rest is up to you. He does say that his exersize routine involved getting his heart rate to 150 beats per minute for two hours every day; this I find extreme even for me but it gives you a sense of what lies in store for you on the roof of Africa.

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