There’s a Mount Everest in my Abu Dhabi apartment building. Or at least there is if you’re willing to resort to the combination of inventiveness and persistence required to stay fit through the brain-sizzling heat of an Arabian summer.
Nobody needs to be reminded that this time of year is hot. But it’s also the mountain climbing season in much of the northern hemisphere and anyone who plans to spend their summer holidays doing that without wasting the first week gasping their way back to fitness needs to find a way to stay fit in the enervating heat of the UAE.
This is, of course, rather easier said than done. At this time of year, I can only manage about half an hour of exercise outside before my head feels like it’s melting and I give in to the temptation to return to air-conditioned spaces.
But the two options are compatible, which is why Himalayan giants can be found inside my apartment building. It’s 26 storeys high, if you count the three basement parking levels. Climb the air-conditioned fire stairs and you’ve ascended a little over 80m – and all in a temperature in the pleasant low 20s instead of the mid-40s.
Do that once a day for 15 days and you’ve climbed the equivalent of Jebel Hafeet. Add one more week and it’s the equivalent of Jebel Jais, the UAE’s highest peak.
Do that once in the morning and once in the evening and after a month, you’ve climbed the equivalent of Mont Blanc. Complete 111 ascents of the stairs – the equivalent of three ascents one day and four the next for a month – and that’s the same as Mount Everest.
It is, admittedly, not the most interesting way to exercise but it’s still better than using a StairMaster at a gym and it’s a world away from dissolving in the sea of humidity outside.
I load my iPod with podcasts of interviews and emerge on the 23rd floor sweatier but better informed than I had been 15 minutes earlier on B3.
I’m not alone in this. Another summertime stairway aficionado is Dubai-based adventurer Adrian Hayes, who is preparing to attempt K2, the world’s second highest peak, in Pakistan this month. He also credits high-rise stairwells as an essential training option when it gets too hot to tackle the real mountains in the UAE or when business takes him to unfamiliar cities.
One reason why fitness is important is because it’s impossible to prepare for some of the challenges presented by the European mountains.
One is temperature, as Emirati mountaineer Saif Almehairi, 31, a manager with the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, discovered last August.
He was attempting Elbrus, a 5,642 metre volcano just on the Russian side of the Caucasus mountain range that, thanks to the slightly spurious definition about where Europe ends and Asia begins, has the accolade of being Europe’s highest peak.
But at the time, there was a 70-degree temperature differential between the 45 degrees prevailing in the UAE in midsummer and the -25 degrees he encountered just before dawn on his summit day. Not even the most overpowered Abu Dhabi air-conditioning unit can prepare you for that.
“At 3am, it was really cold,” he explained later.
“I had multiple layers on – thermals and windbreaker jackets and then a down jacket and then a shell jacket.
“I was covering my whole face with a mask. It was not comfortable. I’m not used to it but you have to wear it.”
A second challenge was the thin air at altitude. Above 5,000m, the oxygen content is roughly half what it is at sea level. For all the deprivations of the UAE summer, the air here is always thick.
But despite having a few moments when he was ready to give in, he reached the 5,642m summit and unfurled a mammoth UAE flag, a gift from the Petroleum Institute that was bigger than he is.
Given the effort, the temperature and depleted oxygen, he could be forgiven for thinking his was the first UAE flag to fly from Europe’s highest mountain.
But then he ran into my group of summer refugees, who had drawn on the reserves of fitness from stairwell climbing to scale the mountain the day before.
Members of that group hailed from Britain, New Zealand, Eritrea and Palestine. But the common theme uniting us was living in the UAE so that’s the flag we carried.
And we found the view from the summit was a lot better than the one available from the Everest in my apartment building.
jhenzell@thenational.ae
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if you go
The flights
Air Astana flies direct from Dubai to Almaty from Dh2,440 per person return, and to Astana (via Almaty) from Dh2,930 return, both including taxes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Almaty cost from Dh1,944 per night including taxes; and in Astana the new Ritz-Carlton Astana (www.marriott) costs from Dh1,325; alternatively, the new St Regis Astana costs from Dh1,458 per night including taxes.
When to visit
March-May and September-November
Visas
Citizens of many countries, including the UAE do not need a visa to enter Kazakhstan for up to 30 days. Contact the nearest Kazakhstan embassy or consulate.
Pros%20and%20cons%20of%20BNPL
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Company%20profile
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Eyasses squad
Charlie Preston (captain) – goal shooter/ goalkeeper (Dubai College)
Arushi Holt (vice-captain) – wing defence / centre (Jumeriah English Speaking School)
Olivia Petricola (vice-captain) – centre / wing attack (Dubai English Speaking College)
Isabel Affley – goalkeeper / goal defence (Dubai English Speaking College)
Jemma Eley – goal attack / wing attack (Dubai College)
Alana Farrell-Morton – centre / wing / defence / wing attack (Nord Anglia International School)
Molly Fuller – goal attack / wing attack (Dubai College)
Caitlin Gowdy – goal defence / wing defence (Dubai English Speaking College)
Noorulain Hussain – goal defence / wing defence (Dubai College)
Zahra Hussain-Gillani – goal defence / goalkeeper (British School Al Khubairat)
Claire Janssen – goal shooter / goal attack (Jumeriah English Speaking School)
Eliza Petricola – wing attack / centre (Dubai English Speaking College)
THE SPECS
Cadillac XT6 2020 Premium Luxury
Engine: 3.6L V-6
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 310hp
Torque: 367Nm
Price: Dh280,000
Walls
Louis Tomlinson
3 out of 5 stars
(Syco Music/Arista Records)
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The past Palme d'Or winners
2018 Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda
2017 The Square, Ruben Ostlund
2016 I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
2015 Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
2014 Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2013 Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2), Abdellatif Kechiche, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux
2012 Amour, Michael Haneke
2011 The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick
2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2009 The White Ribbon (Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), Michael Haneke
2008 The Class (Entre les murs), Laurent Cantet
Mubadala World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule
Thursday December 27
Men's quarter-finals
Kevin Anderson v Hyeon Chung 4pm
Dominic Thiem v Karen Khachanov 6pm
Women's exhibition
Serena Williams v Venus Williams 8pm
Friday December 28
5th place play-off 3pm
Men's semi-finals
Rafael Nadal v Anderson/Chung 5pm
Novak Djokovic v Thiem/Khachanov 7pm
Saturday December 29
3rd place play-off 5pm
Men's final 7pm
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if you go
Getting there
Etihad (Etihad.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Air France (www.airfrance.com) fly to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Return flights cost from around Dh3,785. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Paris to Compiègne by train, with return tickets costing €19. The Glade of the Armistice is 6.6km east of the railway station.
Staying there
On a handsome, tree-lined street near the Chateau’s park, La Parenthèse du Rond Royal (laparenthesedurondroyal.com) offers spacious b&b accommodation with thoughtful design touches. Lots of natural woods, old fashioned travelling trunks as decoration and multi-nozzle showers are part of the look, while there are free bikes for those who want to cycle to the glade. Prices start at €120 a night.
More information: musee-armistice-14-18.fr ; compiegne-tourisme.fr; uk.france.fr
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
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T20 World Cup Qualifier fixtures
Tuesday, October 29
Qualifier one, 2.10pm – Netherlands v UAE
Qualifier two, 7.30pm – Namibia v Oman
Wednesday, October 30
Qualifier three, 2.10pm – Scotland v loser of qualifier one
Qualifier four, 7.30pm – Hong Kong v loser of qualifier two
Thursday, October 31
Fifth-place playoff, 2.10pm – winner of qualifier three v winner of qualifier four
Friday, November 1
Semi-final one, 2.10pm – Ireland v winner of qualifier one
Semi-final two, 7.30pm – PNG v winner of qualifier two
Saturday, November 2
Third-place playoff, 2.10pm
Final, 7.30pm
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5