Making the Climb: What a Novice Climber Learned About Life on Mount Kilimanjaro

by John C. Bowling

Our lives are filled with mountains to conquer. No matter our age or experience, we all have issues, obstacles, opportunities, and challenges that dominate our landscapes and force us to climb whether we're ready or not.Making the Climb is a riveting first-person account of one man's attempt to climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the life-changing lessons learned along the way. John Bowling describes the challenges and difficulties he encountered during the nine days it took to reach the peak of Africa's tallest mountain and the highest free-standing volcano in the world. With wisdom and fortitude, he shares how this exhilarating adventure has equipped him to face and overcome other personal challenges and mountains in his life. He illustrates how this physical challenge impacted and transformed his spiritual life and shares observations, principles, and insights to help others overcome and conquer the challenges of life—no matter how difficult they might seem. Making the Climb: What a Novice Climber Learned About Life on Mount Kilimanjaro invites you to follow John Bowling up one of the world's most magnificent peaks. With intrigue and reflection, he'll lead you on a challenging journey toward the life-changing reward that awaits you at the top. He offers one caution—'Don't look down!'

Genres: Travel

Paperback

First published June 15, 2007

Reviews

[Jacklyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, definitely interesting. If you are not religious or willing to read something that is heavily influenced by religion then read at your own risk. The perspective of this was interesting though, a middle aged novice hiker going up Kilimanjaro, the history of the mountain at the beginning was awesome, and the very open disclosure of the struggle and difficulties was inspiring. The ending did not seem necessary other than to push a belief structure.

[Harold E McBride · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won't go so far as to claim that the title is misleading, because it is not. Because I have read Bowling's Grace-Full Leadership (more than once), I expected the same kind of wisdom and application in this book. Instead, this book is predominantly autobiographical regarding the details of the climb. There are life lessons and applications, but I much prefer G-FL over MtC.

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most accounts of climbing Kili are very dramatic; this author was much more successful at pointing out the challenges in a more honest way. It was well-written and very thoughtful. I also like the fact he chose Thomson Safaris for the trek. This is a great book for a Christian reader.

[Ross Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do not read this book before climbing Kili. It’s one man’s worst case scenario that offers no motivation to future climbers.

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Love this line: "Kilimanjaro conforms to our childlike notions of what a mountain should look like: it is high, wide, and handsome -- a vast triangle rising up from the flat earth."

Other than that, this was a true trudge. I'm not sure which was harder to tolerate--the complaining or the preaching.

I'm still an 0-fer in my quest to find a Kilimanjaro narrative that isn't a series of simple sentences reporting on how much the narrator suffered.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was great to read prior to making our climb. he suffers so much more than we did.... maybe i was better prepared? don't care for the religion bit afterwards, has nothing to do with "making the climb" -- so I suggest skipping the last 3 chapters if you are looking to learn about the Lemosho route on Kili