Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Guide seems accurate to me so far!, 10 Oct 2007
Hello,
I bought the 2nd version of this Andes book about 7 years ago on a whim and was glad that I did! The book details basics like where to buy maps, route approaches, any permits/permission required (not for many mountains to be honest) and brief details of normally the easiest route in 5-10 lines (depending on the mountain). The ***important*** subject of acclimitisation (it's so important I can't even spell it, sorry!) is covered, plus other useful tips if it is your first time in the Andes.
The main differences from the second edition are the addition of colour photos with the route marked (compared with the old black and white sketches), plus the maps are easier to read as they are now in colour. Note that the maps are like 5-cm square and maybe cover upto 100-km, so obviously don't show a lot of detail. As noted above, the guide tells you where you can get more detailed maps - sometimes only in the capital city of each country (GPS is nice to have too.... )
I've only been on 7 of the easy (F/PD) mountains in this guide, but have found the information contained to be reliable (with the exception of where to get the Aconcagua permit which has changed I think?). The author of course stresses that routes alter with time, so obviously ask around locally beforehand about the state of crevaces etc etc. As i've done a few of these mountains alone, the guide was useful in picking 'climbs' that are more like high-altitude walks and only difficult because of the hight, weather, isolation etc.
I'm not sure what negative things I would say about the book. The only thing I can think of is that there is not a huge amount of space for the route descriptions, but there again, if there were the tome would have been too big to carry around!. If you want more detail then other sources are given and/or look on the web/ask locally. The only other guide that I have used for the Andes was "Adventure Handbook Central Chile" by Franz Schubert & Malte Sieber that has more detailed information on climbs and Trecks near Santiago (e.g. photocopies of finer detailed maps). This might be worth considering too albeit it covers a much smaller geographical range. Anyway, all in all the Biggar book is a great buy.... take your time to acclimatise, take care and enjoy!
Peace, Monkey.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Andes: A Trekking Guide, 9 May 2004
Does exactly what it says on the cover. I've done several of the treks described, some before reading this, some after, and found it helpful & accurate. The colour photos are useful for communicating with people with whom you don't share a common language. The altitude profiles, wildlife guide and specialist language sections for mountains and trekking (Spanish, Quecha, Aymara, German, French & Italian) are especially useful. Overall, a much better buy than the Lonely Planet Hiking in the Patagonian Andes book.
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