Let’s Talk about Mountains: A cinematic approach to North Korea

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...

AXES AT THE READY: RETURN OF THE UIAA ICE CLIMBING WORLD TOUR

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...

UIAA RELEASES STANDARD 157:
AVALANCHE RESCUE PROBES

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...

UPDATES TO PAPERS ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT FOREFRONT OF FUTURE MEDCOM RELEASES

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...

UIAA SAFECOM ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS: STATIC AND SEMI-STATIC ROPES

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...

REVIEW: 2021 UIAA YOUTH CLIMBING CAMP IN Ariegé

The latest UIAA Youth Commission Global Youth Summit event, a Climbing Camp, was held in Ariegé, France in early July. The following testimonee has been shared by Christian Biard, UIAA Youth Commission and was written by one of the young climbers from Lithuania. In all the six-day camp welcomed youngsters aged between 12-19, including climbers from France, Lithuania and Spain. The mountain camp in Ariegé was a perfect introduction into all possible activities in the mountains during...

Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix celebrates 200 years

On 15 August 2021, the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix celebrated its 200th anniversary. The first recognised mountain guides association was found by the town council of Chamonix on 24 July 1821. The history of the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix is a founding chapter in the history of both Alpinism and mountain guide profession. The celebrations provided an occasion to evoke the great stages of its existence and to shed light on the future of...

SLOVAK MOUNTAINEERING UNION MARKS CENTENARY ANNIVERSARY

On the weekend of 12-15 August, the Slovak Mountaineering Union (SHS) JAMES, a founder member of the UIAA, celebrated its 100th anniversary. More than 8,000 federation members joined the festivities, including those from over 150 national climbing clubs. Noted Slovak climbers like Zoltan Demjan, Jozef Psotka, Michal Orolin, Peter Hamor were present along with young talents like Vanda Michalkova and Peter Kuric. JAMES acts as a national sports union and responsible body for mountaineering, sport and...

2021 UIAA GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO BE HELD ONLINE

The UIAA - International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation - recently confirmed that its 2021 General Assembly, 23 October, will take place online. It will be the second year running that the GA is held virtually. Owing to the continued impact of Covid-19, particularly on travel and the huge differences in the progress of vaccination roll-outs across the world, the UIAA made the decision that the safest solution is to hold the GA online. The verdict was...

AAC RELEASES ANNUAL ACCIDENTS GUIDE IN SPANISH

The American Alpine Club (AAC) has launched a Spanish edition of its annual Accidents in North American Climbing. This book has been published annually by the American Alpine Club since 1949, sharing stories and lessons from climbing accidents throughout North America. Now, with this first-ever translation of the Accidents book, the AAC aims to share these lessons with Spanish-speaking climbers throughout the world. The reports in this book analyze technical climbing and ski mountaineering accidents during the...