The 2021 UIAA General Assembly will be held on 22-23 October. The event will take place online and spread over two days. All voting matters take place on Saturday 23 October. The final agenda can be found here. The final programme can be found here. The event will also be broadcast live on YouTube (details to follow) and a review of the GA will be published shortly after the event. Further details can be found here....
An integral part of the UIAA Management Committee (MC) throughout the past five years, Greg Moseley’s term both as President of the Mountain Club of South Africa and as a Continental Representative for Africa on the MC recently came to an end. Sharing his thoughts on a significant career as a 'journeyman climber', on the MCSA, climbing in Africa and the role of the UIAA, Greg Moseley features as the latest profile in the UIAA...
The UIAA will host its third Mountain Network Series event of 2021 on 17 November. The topic will be ‘Mountain Women’ and the webinar built around content from Herstory, a series of short films about the lives of different female climbers. The 90-minute webinar will be held on Wednesday 17 November at 19:00 CET (find your time link) including panel discussions covering the following topics: The making of Herstory - inspiration behind the films, choosing the profiled climbers,...
After almost two years of translation, editing, proof reading, photo research, graphic design and printing, the Mountaineering Federation of North Macedonia (FPSM), in cooperation with the UIAA and with technical support from The Petzl Foundation, has published the Macedonian language version of the UIAA Alpine Skills: Summer Handbook. On 27 September it was officially made available to Macedonian mountaineers, climbers and alpinists. Currently, the Handbook has been translated into 12 languages. It is available to members...
The following report is courtesy of Cristina Cucu, UIAA Youth Commission member from the Romanian Alpine Club (CAR): Between 19-23 August, the CAR Bucharest branch organised a summer camp in the heart of Buila Vânturarița National Park at Cheia Lodge. The camp was supported by members of the UIAA Youth Commission. All 23 participants, including five mentors, were Romanian and members of the club. This location was chosen as it abounds with a variety of splendid panoramas,...
What do you think of when you hear "North Korea"? - A film team from the Swiss Alpine Museum toured the mountainous North Korean peninsula during the brief phase of the inter-Korean thaw in 2018-19. As the Swiss Alpine Museum writes: The team climbed mountain peaks with hiking groups, visited school classes, looked over the shoulder of artists, traveled to farms in the hilly province and stopped at the largest North Korean ski resort. Cinematic micro-stories tell...
Please note that this article was originally published on 17 August 2021 and has been amended to reflect the following updates confirmed on 17 September 2021. The UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup scheduled to be held in Vail, Colorado, USA has been postponed until 2023. The UIAA Ice Climbing European Cup in Oulu, Finland has been upgraded to a European Championships featuring both a Senior and Youth event. The UIAA Ice Climbing European Cup in...
Years of extensive research and development by the UIAA Safety Commission continue to come to fruition. In July, the UIAA released Standard 130 Load Sharing Devices and has recently published a Standard dedicated to Avalanche Rescue Probes, Standard 157, the first of its kind worldwide. Following six years of hard work, the Standard was officially approved at the UIAA Safety Commission Plenary Session in June 2021. Since the 1960s the UIAA Safety Commission has developed standards for...
The UIAA Medical Commission is world-renowned for its commitment to providing advice to a wide range of mountain enthusiasts, from experienced climbers and medical professionals to those whose pursuit is more tourism, including people going on an expedition for the first time. While a significant number of topics cover issues which are especially prevalent at high altitude, the papers cover a number of subjects which make essential reading for all those visiting mountain areas. Earlier this...
The UIAA – International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation – regularly receives questions related to safety topics. The UIAA Safety Commission, with support of other UIAA Commissions and experts, has published a series of articles answering common questions with the objective of making them available to the wider climbing community. This month’s question is: I work at a climbing and rope access equipment store and we had a client from the police come in recently with a specific request. He...