Ethics

 

Just as every country has its own culture, climbing cultures also vary between countries and regions. Still, we believe it is possible for our members to agree about the essential ethics of mountaineering and climbing. Therefore the UIAA is working on completing a central guiding document on the ethics, principles and values of our sport.

 

This process began in 2001, when the UIAA Mountaineering Commission completed a document called the Mountain Code. PDF The Mountain Code. In September 2002 experts, representatives from mountaineering federations and some of the world's leading mountaineers and rock climbers from around the world met at the “Future of Mountain Sports Conference” in Innsbruck. This conference was organised in cooperation between local government, the Oesterreichischer Alpenverein, the Deutscher Alpenverein and the UIAA. The participants developed the Mountain code further and the conference finally adopted the document as the Tyrol Declaration on Best Practice in Mountain Sports.

 

The Tyrol declaration has been translated into many languages and promoted by member federations and the UIAA Mountaineering Commission. The declaration has however not been adopted by the UIAA General Assembly yet.

 

The goal of the UIAA Executive Board is to create a final document, based on the Mountain Code and the Tyrol Declaration, but also including aspects of the UIAA Summit charter 2002 . This new document would also deal with the issues of using supplementary oxygen and performance enhancing drugs. We hope to have a code or declaration on ethics approved by the UIAA General Assembly in Teheran 2008.