Ski Rescue Insurance

An accident in the mountains may require expensive helicopter rescue or emergency medical treatment. For this reason, you must purchase specialist travel insurance for all trips taking place outside of the UK. We strongly recommend that you purchase cover as soon as your trip is confirmed to run, so that you are covered should you need to cancel due to personal circumstances.

What does my insurance need to cover?

You need to be insured for medical expenses, emergency search and rescue, repatriation and cancellation/curtailment. Ideally, your equipment should also be insured against loss or breakage. The insurance needs to cover the activities you will be undertaking – please note that many ‘standard’ ski/travel policies do not cover off-piste skiing and ski touring/ski mountaineering in glacial terrain. Please check your insurers’ activity definitions and cover limits carefully, to ensure you are covered for the location, activities involved and altitude range of your trip (refer the webpage/trip factsheet for information on activities and the altitude for each trip).

Do I need cover for Ski Touring or Ski Mountaineering?

Insurers may differentiate between Ski Touring and Ski Mountaineering on their policies, requiring a higher level of cover for ski mountaineering trips. As a general rule, if we list an ice axe and crampons as requirements on the trip equipment list, then treat it as a ski mountaineering rather than a ski touring trip.

Check the details

Please read the small print and think carefully about your overall travel plans and requirements. Here are some examples of things to check for:

Some policies are only valid if your departure date from, and arrival date back into your country of residence, align with the start/end dates of your policy. IE if you are on an extended trip and participating in various activities, but have purchased a specialist policy to cover only a portion of your trip, then it may not be valid.
Curtailment – will you be covered if you need to abandon part way through your trip, due to injury or personal circumstances, or if you cannot reach your destination due to travel issues?
Skiing and climbing equipment is becoming ever more expensive. Does your policy have an adequate single item limit to cover skis or ski boots? Does it have an adequate limit to cover all of your equipment?
Have you declared all pre-existing medical conditions?
Does your policy have adequate cover for search, rescue and medical expenses? Eg, a prolonged stay in a Swiss hospital could cost many tens, or hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Making a claim – check which documentation is required to back up your claim, eg you may need a statement/report from the medical establishment you were referred to in resort, to substantiate any illness or injury.

Ski Insurance Companies

There are various options in the insurance market, with new companies appearing and terms changing from year to year. The inclusion of a company on this list does not mean we have vetted every aspect of their policies, but these are all commonly used by our clients.

Insurance for UK residents

British Mountaineering Council. Competitive single trip or annual cover for all ski touring and mountaineering activities.

Snowcard. As above

Other companies that are worth exploring include Dogtag and World Nomads.

Uk Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC). This is the post Brexit replacement for the EHIC (NB if you still have an EHIC, it is still valid until the expiry date) gives you reciprocal health care in EU and various other countries. You can apply for an Uk GHIC card online here or from most Post Offices. You need an GHIC in addition to your travel insurance. More info here.

For European residents (non-UK)

Austrian Alpine Club. Available to all European residents. AAC insurance is inexpensive and works ok for minor accidents and rescues, but is not as comprehensive as many other insurance providers. The medical cover included would not be enough for complex treatment or a prolonged stay in hospital. It also doesn’t include cancellation cover. If you choose to use AAC we recommend you take out extra medical cover with another provider, to ‘top up’ the AAC medical limit, as well as a separate cancellation policy.

Worldwide

Travelex offer a range of policies for residents of the USA, and for the rest of the world, Global Rescue offer cover to all nationalities via a combination of Global Rescue membership (which covers rescue/evacuation only) and their separate add on insurance policy which is required for medical cover and cancellation etc.

If there is any doubt about the scope of your chosen policy we recommend that you contact your insurer to ensure cover extends to the required activities and has the necessary components (search/rescue, medical, repatriation and cancellation). It’s worth mentioning that rescue and medical expenses in Switzerland can be significantly more expensive than in other countries, so a good level of cover is required for Swiss tours.

We recommend that you send us your insurance details before the trip commences, and they must be brought to the course briefing at the start of your trip. However, we cannot check the detail of every individual policy, and it is your own responsibility to ensure you are adequately insured.