Founded in 1932, the UIAA is the international federation for climbing and mountaineering. It started creating safety standards in 1960 with rope testing. The UIAA collaborates with CEN, the European Committee for Standardisation, for the harmonisation of standards. In some cases, the UIAA requires additional tests that make the standard more stringent than CEN. Therefore, UIAA standards may differ slightly from CEN standards. Standard UIAA 121 specifies requirements and methods for karabiners and connectors for mountaineering, climbing, speleology, canyoning and related activities.
