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The Complete Walker IV | 
 enlarge | Authors: Colin Fletcher, Chip Rawlins
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $13.36
You Save: $9.59 (42%)
New (25) Used (20) Collectible (1) from $6.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 14771
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 864
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 0375703233
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.51
EAN: 9780375703232
ASIN: 0375703233
Publication Date: April 30, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new book. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling books online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080515211443T
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
For the first time since 1984, we have a new edition of the classic book that Field & Stream called “the Hiker’s Bible.” For this version, the celebrated writer and hiker Colin Fletcher has taken on a coauthor, Chip Rawlins, himself an avid outdoorsman and a poet from Wyoming. Together, they have made this fourth edition of The Complete Walker the most informative, entertaining, and thorough version yet.
The eighteen years since the publication of The Complete Walker III have seen revolutionary changes in hiking and camping equipment: developments in waterproofing technology, smaller and more durable stoves, lighter boots, more manageable tents, and a wider array of food options. The equipment recommendations are therefore not merely revised and tweaked, but completely revamped. During these two decades we have also seen a deepening of environmental consciousness. Not only has backpacking become more popular, but a whole ethic of responsible outdoorsmanship has emerged. In this book the authors confidently lead us through these technological, ethical, and spiritual changes.
Fletcher and Rawlins’s thorough appraisal and recommendation of equipment begins with a “Ground Plan,” a discussion of general hiking preparedness. How much to bring? What are the ideal clothes, food, boots, and tents for your trip? They evaluate each of these variables in detail—including open, honest critiques and endorsements of brand-name equipment. Their equipment searches are exhaustive; they talk in detail about everything from socks to freeze-dried trail curries.
They end as they began, with a philosophical and literary disquisition on the reasons to walk, capped off with a delightful collection of quotes about walking and the outdoor life. After a thoughtful and painstaking analysis of hiking gear from hats to boots, from longjohns to tent flaps, they remind us that ultimately hiking is about the experience of being outdoors and seeing the green world anew.
Like its predecessors, The Complete Walker IV is an essential purchase for anyone captivated by the outdoor life.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 If I could choose 1 book on backpacking, this would be it February 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I checked this book out from the local library, along with several other books on backpacking. This one, by far, was the most in-depth, realistic and FUN to read book. Not only does it give you information on choosing gear, leave-no-trace ethics, how to pack, what to bring, how to select a campsite, etc, it also has excellent illustrations and a generous amount of humor. I was actually quite crushed when I discovered that one of the authors, Colin Fletcher had died as a result of complications from being struck by an SUV. You kind of feel like the two authors become good friends of yours by the time you finish this book. It's a great book, both for learning practical backpacking techniques AND for reading on cold days when you're tucked up safe and warm in the house and you're just daydreaming of future trips. Even though I've already read it from the library, this is one of those books I need to own and will be buying shortly.
Well written and a world of experience to pass on. August 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a solid book of information, a great resource. A ton of good reading and reliable wisdom. You could use this book to train anyone to hit the trail, you just may not want to carry it, it's BIG! Highly Recommended.
 Very little use to me May 2, 2007
7 out of 18 found this review helpful
I brought this book in the hopes it would tell me about walking. I was very disappointed that it appears to simply be a gear guide. If you are into that good, but it's not all that useful for someone like me. A sleeping bag is a sleeping bag I don't need 20 pages tell me about them.
I also expected a little more that just gear information. Obviously this is something you need to take into account but it's not everything. I would perhaps have called this book the complete gear guide but it is certainly not the complete walker. The index also leaves much to be desired.
Still the best! Not called "the hikers Bible" for nothing. February 26, 2007
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is the fourth edition of a book which first came out in 1968, which I read probably around 1970, and which as the name implies is all about walking. Or more accurately about hiking, backpacking and camping in all sorts of environments and situations.
The author is a colorful character named Colin Fletcher, although for this edition (which came out in 2002) he has a co-author named Chip Rawlins. He needs the co-author since he was just short of 80 in 2002, so wasn't getting out on the trails as frequently as he used to. And there's a lot of new gear out there.
Over the years Fletcher has written a number of books about his long hikes, including a six month walk through the Grand Canyon.
The Complete Walker IV contains a huge amount of information, much of it irrelevant to me, since I wont be snowshoeing through mountains or crossing the Colorado river on my air mattress. But it also contains great information if, like me, you are planning on doing some brief campouts in the spring and summer, including two and three night backpacking expeditions with young sons.
This is why I decided to re-read the book in it's new edition. After all, there's plenty of stuff that didn't even exist in 1970, like fleece clothes and self-inflating sleeping pads, as well as huge improvement in things like tents and backpacking stoves. So figured it was worth re-visiting the book.
And I wasn't disappointed. The Complete Walker IV is still a breeze to read (skimming or skipping the irrelevant sections), written with elegant humor and vigorous prose and loaded with advice on equipment and technique. It is very comprehensive, and also offers many suggestions for additional reading. For example, based on their recommendations I looked at a number of books on first aid and mountaineering medicine and have purchased two through Amazon.
So highly recommended if you have any interest at all in the subject - still "the hiker's Bible" as it was first labelled by Field and Stream in 1968.
 Incomplete Walker: a tale of two books February 8, 2007
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
I bought this book based on its overwhelmingly positive reviews. Having read the book, I can understand the effusive praise: there are certainly many parts that are deserving. In the best parts of the book, the writers definitely draw the reader into the "romance" of hiking/backpacking. There can be no question that their writing draws from authentic and tested (many times) experience, and they convey their thoughts in a manner that is very engaging, even infectious. In fact, I defy any reader to read this book and not be inspired to "get out there." For this reason alone I can highly recommend this book.
But there is another respect in which I found this book wanting. To call it "complete" is beyond overstatement. Really, this book is two books: a timeless one that romantically talks about "walking" with practical considerations and some tips and techniques conveyed as appropriate within the context of the broader "story," and one that is a painstaking, excruciating inventory of gear that was probably already fairly outdated at the time it was published and quite outdated now. Even more frustrating was how often something would be mentioned briefly, acknowledged as important, and then skipped (e.g., useful knots)! This from an 800+ page "Complete" tome! I can understand that a certain franchise has been built on the "Complete Walker" moniker, but at the very least it's misleading.
For future editions, my suggestions would be to 1) retain all the sections relating examples and "true story" types of experiences (there are many in the book and virtually all are excellent), 2) ruthlessly and dramatically condense the product/gear reviews (any such reviews will rapidly become dated but shelf life can be extended by focusing more on principles and only briefly noting specific exemplars extant), and 3) either increase the scope to include those subjects the writers themselves deem as important or drop the word "complete" in the title. With these changes, I would rate the revised edition five stars without reservation.
As it is, the current edition is a combination "walking" (albeit incomplete) manual and inspiration guide that handily rates five stars and a gear review that at best rates 3 stars. Hence, my four star rating.
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