Every two years, the King Albert I Memorial Foundation presents the international Albert Mountain Award. The prize is awarded to people who have rendered outstanding services to the mountains as athletes, researchers, or cultural workers.
The next award ceremony will take place on Friday 23 October 2026 at the ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern and will honour award winners from Switzerland, France, and Georgia.
For the first time, the UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d’Alpinisme) will also be presenting its two Mountain Protection Awards during the ceremony, namely one to the Overall Winner and one to the Best New Initiative.
Preliminary Programme
1:30pm-4pm: The award winners in conversation
From 4pm: Apéro
5.30pm -7:10pm: Albert Mountain Award Ceremony. Special Guest UIAA.
This event is open to the public.
The King Albert I Memorial Foundation was established in 1993 as a Swiss foundation in memory of the mountaineer and Belgian King Albert I (1875–1934). The aim of the foundation is to grant the Albert Mountain Award to persons or institutions who have rendered exceptional, sustainable services in connection with the mountains of the world.
To date, 67 persons and institutions have been granted the Albert Mountain Award. Among them are, for example, outstanding mountaineers and rock climbers, geographers and geologists, photographers and writers, publishers of alpine literature, doctors specialising in high-altitude medicine, or persons and institutions who have dedicated themselves to the protection of mountains. They have all made an important contribution towards preserving the mountains as a majestic, beautiful and safe place – as a living environment for mountain people, a leisure environment for mountaineers and as a heritage of our world.
Freedom, ethical and responsible conduct and respect for the alpine environment are the criteria that determine the granting of a Albert Mountain Award.
MRI Chair Jörg Balsiger is among the members of the King Albert Memorial Foundation Board.
Cover image: King Albert I of Belgium attempting to climb the east face of Cima Brenta in the Dolomites in 1931. Source: L’Illustrazione italiana, n. 8 del 25 febbraio 1934. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.