At last I have in my hand one of the first 2 copies of the Englishlanguage version of this long standing collaborative project!

at last I have in my hand one of the first 2 copies of the English language version of this long standing collaborative project!
Originally uploaded by SteveMLT

The main consignment is still being shipped, but thankfully my colleague from the Petzl Foundation, Philippe Descamps, was able to bring one o the first 2 copies he received. This is another milestone achievement for the UIAA Trainng Standards and we already have advanced orders from many countries as well as requests to translate the book into other languages.

I'm writing this update from Brussels as I await an evning flight home after yet another very busy but rewarding month. At the UIAA Mountaineering Commissoin Training Standards Panel meeting this year's valdiation reports were all approved. This means that now the following countires have new Training Standard accreditations: Serbia, Portugal, Russia, Chile, UK (JSMTC) and Turkey and we have a whole new round of applications to service.

Meanwhile we are working on a complete overhaul of the UIAA website along the lines of what UK readers will be familiar with on the MTUK's site, which is now driven by a very powerful online database - I am convinced that this will completely revolutionise the UIAA and the way that it serves the federations, and just in time too as the 2 biggest federations (DAV and OeAV) rejoin! I don't think we are going to be getting bored in 2014!