Al Ain: Scaling mountain peaks is a thrilling sport but could pose a grave risk to youngsters practising it on the rough peaks of Jebel Hafeet without training and proper protective gear.
Youngsters are attracted to peaks overlooking the tourist spot on Jebel Hafeet. Many of them climb to dangerous heights.
The mountain, one of the highest in the UAE, has a rough and difficult terrain that poses a challenge even to trained climbers.
A newly developed, but rough and completely unprotected, track is believed to be drawing youngsters to take the risk.
The track begins at the only cafeteria on the mountain's view point and snakes its way up to a point that has not yet been fully developed.
It winds around dangerous peaks overlooking deep gorges. Many women and children have also been seen exploring the track since the main viewpoint area has nothing for tourists except a huge parking lot.
Naturally, people expecting to see a well-developed tourist spot at Jebel Hafeet are disappointed after finding nothing but desolate ground on top.
"It's a total disappointment," Mitchell Smith, a teenage European expatriate, said.
The new track, however, is a different matter. The rock climbing enthusiast said it did not matter how dangerous it was. "It is thrilling and adventurous though a bit risky."
Worth the risk
Walid Hassam, a young Arab expatriate, said he also climbed a nearby peak though it was difficult and risky.
"Yeh! It was risky but enjoyable," he said. Three of his friends who took part in a climbing race agreed.
Majida Batool, an expatriate and mother of three children, said she had forced her children to stay away from the track. "I am surprised to see no protection at all around this place," she said.
Jebel Hafeet attracts thousands of people from across the UAE and the place is totally ignored by police and other authorities, she added.
"I have not seen any police patrol, an ambulance, or any security official on the mountain," the concerned mother who came with her family from Abu Dhabi said.
Mohammad Zubair Farooqi, a Sharjah-based seasoned mountaineer and an expert in high altitude climbing, has a warning.
"It is extremely dangerous. Rock climbing needs specific training and equipment without which climbing is nothing but attempted suicide."
Farooqi said youngsters love climbing and camping and authorities should provide sufficient and secure opportunities to them. "An immediate ban should be enforced on this unprotected mountain climbing on Jebel Hafeet," he said, noting that the concerned authority must install prohibition signs and boards at the place and secure the area.
Farooqi, who has scaled mountains in Pakistan's Karakorum range and the famous Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, said the UAE needs a climbing club. The country has a number of mountains and training could produce excellent climbers.
"It is a thrilling sport, but people need to be educated and trained," he said, noting that UAE has never produced a world famous mountaineer. "If a Kuwaiti man can scale the Mount Everest, why not an Emirati?"
Farooqi is also the representative of the famous Alpine Club and Adventure Foundation of Pakistan in the Gulf countries.
