UIMLA
Mountains and People – Bulgarian Association of Mountain Leaders and Mountain Guides
Information about
UIMLA
About
UIMLA (Union of International Mountain Leaders Associations)
UIMLA was founded in 2004 as a French non-governmental organization that brings together professional mountain leader associations in Europe. Today UIMLA is an international governing body which is representing International Mountain Leaders across the world. Only one national association per country can be accepted as a member of UIMLA. Mountains and People – Bulgarian Association of Mountain Leaders and Mountain Guides is the Bulgarian association member of UIMLA.
As of November 2025, full members of UIMLA are national associations from 28 countries – Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Nepal, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Ireland.
Aspirant members are national associations from Georgia, USA, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Kosovo.
More information: https://uimla.org/
UIMLA Standards
One of the most important targets for UIMLA is to represent the profession at the international level as well as setting equal standards of qualifications for all International Mountain Leaders (IMLs). UIMLA promotes the profession and supports the cooperation between IMLs from different countries.
An International Mountain Leader (IML) is a person that has been trained and assessed against the challenging requirements of UIMLA. The IML qualification lets the holder lead clients and tourist groups in different mountains all over the world, where the skills and equipment of alpinism are not required. IMLs cannot provide tours on glaciers and permanent snow, and where the planned use of a rope is necessary. However, IMLs can work with groups on high altitude treks as well as lead groups on snowshoes.IMLs, from every member country, have to maintain International Continuing Professional Development (ICPD) to ensure that members are kept up-to-date with the latest developments in mountain leadership.
- Please have a look here: https://uimla.org/about-us/how-to-recognise-a-licensed-uimla-iml/
If you are interested in the UIMLA public documents, like the UIMLA Standard or the UIMLA Sustainability and Environmental Policy, please have a look here: https://uimla.org/aboutus/standards-and-policies/
Bulgaria in UIMLA
Mountains and People – Bulgarian Association of Mountain Leaders and Mountain Guides was accepted as a full member of UIMLA in 2010 during the UIMLA Annual General Meeting in Switzerland.
In 2012, Mountains and People – Bulgarian Association of Mountain Leaders and Mountain Guides actively participated in the development of the unified standard for mountain leader training and practice. Only three years after Mountains and People – Bulgarian Association of Mountain Leaders and Mountain Guides was accepted as a member, it hosted the UIMLA Annual General Meeting, which was held in Bansko in November 2013. In the following years, with the assistance of Mountains and People Association, part of the practical training of mountain leaders from Romania and Belgium was organized in the Bulgarian mountains. Mountains and People Association played a mentor role for the Romanian association of mountain leaders and supported the process of their acceptance as a member of UIMLA.
Representatives of Mountains and People Association have repeatedly participated in UIMLA working groups, such as in the renewal of the UIMLA statutes, visual identity, communication strategy, updating the standard for training and practicing the profession, etc. Mountains and People Association assists in preserving the institutional memory of UIMLA during the changes of the board of directors and especially during the relocation of
the headquarters from France to Switzerland. Currently, the headquarters of UIMLA is in Switzerland.
In November 2025, Mountains and People – Bulgarian Association of Mountain Leaders and Mountain Guides again hosted the UIMLA Annual General Meeting, which was held in Borovets. At the meeting, the national association of mountain leaders in Greece was accepted as a member of UIMLA, and the association from Kosovo became an aspirant member.
By the end of 2025, the number of Bulgarian IMLs was about 90. One of the conditions for acquiring IML qualification is membership in Mountains and People – Bulgarian Association of Mountain Leaders and Mountain Guides (this concerns candidates with Bulgarian citizenship).