Colombia considers applying for UIAA membership

Print this story Email to a friend

Colombian alpine scenery (UPAME)

UIAA Vice President Jordi Colomer recently held talks in Colombia with authorities from the national mountaineering and climbing federation, FECDME, which hopes to apply for UIAA membership in 2011. Colomer also met with officials from Coldeportes, the governmental authority for sports in Colombia.

The talks were held from November 26 – 30, which also included a meeting with the Colombia Olympic Committee.

“After several years in which the Colombian Mountaineering Federation was inactive, several clubs have started to build a committee to start the organization and Executive Board elections in order to pursue mountaineering and climbing activities,” Colomer said after a talks with FECDME’s restructuring committee.

The “Comité pro Federación” was lead by Fernando Gonzalez Rubio, Silvio Alejo Martinez and Oscar Agüera. The objective was to start activities from June 2011. They want to apply to becoe a UIAA member in 2011.

On November 29, Colomer met with Carlos Gomez, a Coldeportes adviser. Colomer said Gomez is very involved in assisting the Colombia federation to begin mountaineering activities, and that he had asked for UIAA collaboration in this matter. These talks were followed by a meeting with the Colombia Olympic Committee president.

Jordi Colomer

The UIAA Vice President said the Colombian federation still had a lot of work to do to reach its objectives, but he was optimistic they could achieve their goals due to the enthusiasm of the people involved, and their experience in the management of clubs.

FECDME also expressed an interest to begin collaborating with the Latin American continental federation, UPAME, and asked Colomer about participating in the UIAA Training Standards in 2011.