Down here around Abu Dhabi and Dubai, approaching the outer edge of the Empty Quarter, nature is boring. What we have is hard-baked sand and miles and miles of flatlands. On some of that, buildings have been constructed.

The whole country is not like that, however. The northern emirates, especially, have hills and mountains and even seasonal streams. Yeah, wild.

And in Ras Al Khaimah, in the north, is a very difficult rock climb called the Stairway to Heaven.

A name that became sadly ironic when a man fell to his death while attempting to make the climb.

Turns out, the climb is a very difficult one, and quite dangerous. Somehow, the “danger” part has not really impressed itself on the average climber, because lots of them get hurt there on what is a rocky goat path where climbers get no cell-phone reception.

Check the youtube bit here, to get an idea of what it looks like. One of the climbers says: “Edge of the world, dog.”

Several members of The National staff take advantage of the outdoors opportunities here in the UAE — and they all involve lengthy drives — and one of them did a long piece about the Stairway to Heaven, after the fatal fall, and that story appeared here.

Apparently, it is a long, hard climb. And it took the life of a British man who was negotiating it alone.

Anyway … done here in the south, where nature hardly exists aside from the blistering sun and the placid, salty Gulf … it’s a bit hard to think of mountains and rocks that can kill you, here in the UAE. But they are out there.