The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) announced the 2025-2026 UIAA Mountain Protection Award prize winners at its 2025 General Assembly in Kosovo, and will be celebrating them again at a dedicated ceremony at the ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern, Switzerland on 23 October 2026. Anyone interested in attending is welcome to join and register here. Please note that registration is free, but spaces are limited.
For the first time, the MPA celebration will be staged jointly to the ceremony of the King Albert I Foundation’s Mountain Awards. Their winners this year are Marion Poitevin, Gela Mtivlishvili, Robert Bösch and Günter Schmudlach, who will all be present and honoured at the event in late October. Representatives of the UIAA MPA Overall winner – Flagship Shelters for the Environment of FFCAM – and the Best New Initiative – Walking the Tra Tra of MCSA – will also be presenting their projects to the audience.
The ceremony programme entails:
13:30 – 15:45
Award Winners’ Talk: video presentations by the winners of the UIAA Mountain Protection Award as well as a conversation with the winners of the 2026 Albert Mountain Award
15:45 – 16:45
Reception featuring specialties from the award winners’ countries
17:00 – 18:45
2026 UIAA Mountain Protection Award Ceremony and Albert Mountain Award Ceremony
Further Information
The UIAA Mountain Protection Award (MPA) is the UIAA’s flagship project in sustainability. The year 2025 marked the 11th edition of the Award. 2026 is dedicated to community building with the Award platform opening again in 2027.
