FAQ

Insurers usually ask you to pay the first part of a claim to keep claims administration costs down. The excess is per person claiming under each section of the policy. If you make multiple claims under different sections, the excess will apply to each section as specified in the policy wording. When you order your policy, you can select your own excess from zero to £250.

Off piste skiing is any skiing or snowboarding activity away from marked and controlled slopes. 

Ski touring is a ski journey that includes the use of skins, sometimes ropes or crampons for safety but ascents of peaks that are walking ascents that do not include technical mountaineering in the climbing or alpinism style of ascent. 

Often the terms 'ski touring' and 'ski mountaineering' are used interchangeably but from the insurance perspective, we differentiate 'touring' from 'mountaineering' because technical alpine ascents that combine climbing with ski touring approaches present higher underwriting risks. 

The ski mountaineering option should therefore be used if you are engaged in alpinism, technical alpine ascents in winter conditions where you are using traditional ski touring travel to approach your climbs. 

Note: snowboarding and split boarding are included within these definitions if accessing back country areas outside of normal resort boundaries.

You should only ski or board in back country areas if you are experienced and carrying the appropriate safety equipment. If you are inexperienced you should only enter back country areas with a guide. 

Do not follow experienced skiers or boarders into back country areas if you are not experienced enough yourself. Always seek instruction with guides before going off piste into back country areas for the first time.

The FCDO advises all travellers to have travel insurance to cover emergency medical expenses and repatriation insurance. Although some medical services are provided at no or reduced costs, a proportion of most European medical services are charged for and any private facility requires full payment. In the event of a serious injury or illness, medical costs can be high and if a medically assisted repatriation is required, this can be extremely expensive. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/foreign-travel-insurance 

With regards to rescue, even if the SAR team are volunteers and do not charge, the cost of an ambulance to transport you to hospital would be invoiced to the rescued party.

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