New UIAA standards coming
Posted: November 25, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized 4 Comments
The UIAA, (Union Internationale des Association d’Alpinisme), has a new Safety Label for abseiling and belay devices coming out next year. That means that new standards are coming out for belay and rappelling devices. The goal of the UIAA is to update the standards on all equipment by 2009 year end. This update will also see new testing in several instances, particularly climbing harnesses and Via Farrata energy absorbing systems.
One very new idea will be recommendations on how climbers should inspect their own equipment and retire it. This will not be a standard. The Europeans understand the legal issues between a standard and a recommendation. It will be posted at the site when it is available.
I am a member of the Legal Experts Working Group of the UIAA.
See Safety label is expanding.
Recreation Law 
The information that is available I have linked in the article.
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Hello Jim,
Thanks for the post. Could you advise me if those new UIAA standards were already released or not? In the case they were, can you post a URL so we can check them out?
Thank you!
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It’s a pity the UIAA standards are purely CYA regulations for the industry. These revisions are a missed opportunity for pushing towards safer products. The helmet standard is pathetic and standards for carabiners, ascenders, active pro and several others are very weak. But consumers really have no representation so it’s just the industry setting the rules for themselves.
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Hello Jim. Nice piece here, especially for the climbers to know exactly whats happeneing with the UIAA standards in the future. A forum embedded on the UIAA website might be coming in 2009 to discuss and detail such news. Please keep writing!!Gurdeepak
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