structural:expansion, quality:corruption, linguistic:translation, structural:summarization
Rules and governance

Mountaineering lacks formal rules – though appropriately empowered bodies make many pertaining to specific use of mountains and practices on them. In theory, any person may climb a mountain and call themself a mountaineer. In practice, the sport is defined by the safe and necessary use of technical skills in mountainous terrain: in particular, roped climbing and snow travel abilities. A variety of techniques have been developed to help people climb mountains that are widely applied among practitioners of the sport.

Despite its lack of defined rules and non-competitive nature, certain aspects of mountaineering have much of the trappings of an organized sport, with recognition of specific climbing activities – including climbing wall -based competition – by the International Olympic Committee; on a club level, the prominent international sport federation the UIAA counts numerous national alpine clubs as its members, while others, such as The Mountaineers and the French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing, remain independent.

The premier award in mountaineering is the privately granted Piolet d'Or, which has expanded from a single recognition to multiple. While there are many competitions, particularly in toproped climbing wall disciplines, there are no "official" world championships or other similar competitions for mountaineering broadly.