I was looking around for some good value ski season insurance and came across Travel Insurance Direct. I hadn’t heard of them before and couldn’t believe how cheap it was. Dubious.......but after looking into the policy, it seems to be a sweet deal indeed.

I managed to get a 4 month, fully comp policy in the US, for just £135. This actually covers on/off piste, ski park and helicopter pickup and is underwritten by AXA. Bargain!!! I’ve paid a lot more than that in the past for what seems like a much more basic policy. I found them at http://www.travel-insurance.net

Ski Club GB are also very good, whether a member or not

Eek, I think I would pass on Travel-Insurance, this line looks like a great big get-out clause.

“Off Piste Skiing (except in areas designated as unsafe by resort management)”

and look at this

“Guided Cross Country Skiing”

I assume they mean ski touring. So you are not covered unless with a guide. The fact that they appear to confuse cross-country with ski touring makes me think they don’t know much about skiing.

As Chamcham says, Ski Club GB or British Mountaineering Council for UK based skiers looking for a no hassle policy for off piste or touring. Most UK policies have nasty get out clauses in them.

As for Axa, they have a bad reputation in France with respect to handicapped people and non-ethical investments, although they have recently responded to pressure from Amnesty wrt to anti personnel mine investments

http://www.wmaker.net/handicapinternational_en/AXA-disinvests-partly-from-landmines-and-cluster-munitions_a483.html
http://www.humanite.fr/2000-02-16_Societe_Handicapes-Axa-le-groupe-qui-n-assure-pas

That said, Travel-Net’s policy may represent good value for someone wanting to largely ski piste with some guided backcountry skiing and skiing low risk off piste. The BMC and Ski Club policies are more expensive. You really need to check the details of the policy. However it is something a serious off piste and ski touring website would recommend without a lot more detail of what they cover.

Your a busy bee promoting your good deal Oscar:

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=43256

Well… it doesn’t sound cheap at all!!!…

You may for instance get an insurance for all mountain activities for less than 20€ / year, as I have just checked.
For instance ANCEF (a cross-country skiing centres association) provides it for 15.50€ / year for residents in France. Foreign residents would only be covered during their stay here.
http://ancef.com/visu_page.php?id_page=211

If you are skiing in France the CAF (Club Alpin Francais) membership insurance is quite reasonable and good for all kinds of both winter and summer mountain activities ...

I’ve got FFME insurance (with my climbing club) which is much the same as the CAF. Two other options suggest themselves for season long search and rescue cover (in theory you don’t need this for ski touring as the tab is picked up by the French Govt) plus incidental medical expenses. These are the famous Carte Neige, available in any French ski resort and open to all. They will even repatriate you to your own country. The other is the Carte Vieux Campeur:-

http://www.auvieuxcampeur.fr/assurance

The option “vie privee” is good as it covers you just wandering around the ski resort.

There is more info in an article I wrote here:-

http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Articles/Insurance-For-Backcountry-Skiing-And-Snowboarding

Most general UK ski policies DO NOT give adequate cover for ski touring, especially when you are on glaciers or if the avalanche risk is high but then their premiums reflect this.

Don’t end up like Sam Harber and James Rourke who had a tour operator policy which didn’t pay out when needed. Their families are still traumatized by all this.

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/mountain-of-debt-for-tignes-avalanche-families/

davidof - 15 October 2008 12:29 PM

“Guided Cross Country Skiing”
I assume they mean ski touring. So you are not covered unless with a guide. The fact that they appear to confuse cross-country with ski touring makes me think they don’t know much about skiing.

As with all insurance, be it house, home or Ski Travel Insurance, it is always best to check out what is covered from the company themselves. It is easy to become confused otherwise.

At Travel Insurance Direct we sell the insurance being dicussed and are happy to answer, or find out the answer, to any question about any insurance we sell, be it ski insurance or otherwise.  In this case, there appears to be some confusion over clauses.

The clause to Off Piste Skiing “except in areas designated as unsafe by resort management” is there to prevent foolhardy souls ignoring “Avalanche Danger” warnings, etc., bumping up the price of all our premiums. There may be policies out there which might cover for higher risk activities, and there are certainly some out there which don’t cover off piste activities at all. Ours lies securely in the middle.

For the same reason, Cross Country skiing is only covered if it is guided. My favourite place in the world must be the Hardangervidda in Norway, the largest mountain plateau in Northern Europe. A marvellous place to explore (have yet to do it myself) but heaven forbid someone who doesnt do so with a guide. (Even the Heroes of Telemark had one!) I dont think I need to say more.

If you would like to see the policy in detail visit http://www.travel-insurance.net/ski-insurance/cheap-ski-insurance.php and click on one of the yellow buttons under the Instant Quote form. Or you can always call us if you have a question about our ski insurance - we even have a freephone number on the web site!!

Hi Richard,

I appreciate your policy is aimed at the vast majority of recreational skiers who want to do some “sensible” off piste. However can you clear up what you mean by Cross-country skiing? What most people would take this to mean is skiing on skinny little skis around marked up trails on some flat platau (its called ski de fond or langlauf in France and Germany). This is a really low risk sport and should be covered with any policy along with snowshoeing on marked trails. It seems like you should make a distinction here.

What I think your policy is exluding is ski touring - that is, climbing peaks and then skiing down “alpine” style - either on touring or telemark skis. I quite appreciate that normal UK ski insurance would not want to cover this without a guide. It would make the policy uncompetitive and is not what most UK skiers do on holiday.

I should also point out to anyone stumbling across this thread that Carte Neige, CAF etc do not give UK based skiers adequate health cover. So you should consider these in conjunction with a policy such as that proposed by Richard.

Underwriters consider cross country skiing as involving traversing tracks through natural terrain where skiers can cover long distances away from a resort and in unknown territory.  It is for the reason of the latter fact more than the intrinsic danger that they require there be a guide.  Rather than say one type of skiing by name is covered and the other isn’t, it is more imporant to look at what the actual activity is doing.  Off Piste is considered to be downhill skiing on runs that are away from the crowds and regular ski runs but still within the resort.

We also have a list of Ski Insurance Benefits on our web site - http://www.travel-insurance.net/ski-insurance/ski-insurance.php

I hope this answers your questions.

Quite often I take out specialised insurance through Worldwide Travel Services.  I pay an additional Rate 5 Premium to include ski touring, glacier travel, heliskiing, rock climbing, via ferrata, abseiling etc.  So it just about leaves your options open to access your favourite secret stash.

But does Ski Club of GB allow non-residents of Britain to get insurance cover?  The website says no.

Hi Skidz,

yes worldwide travel insurance seems to tick the boxes. Covers off piste and heliskiing. I looked through the policy and didn’t see any exclusions that worried me like not covering at certain avalanche risks.

SnowboardBuzz, you accue Skidz of Spam but in most of your replies your link is longer than your post.

davidof - 08 August 2010 10:32 AM

SnowboardBuzz, you accue Skidz of Spam but in most of your replies your link is longer than your post.

And not just on this forum!

I took a look at the Travel Insurance website. There is no search and rescue cover.

Ski Insurance Benefits

Air Ambulance?
One of the most frequently asked questions about ski insurance is “Will I be covered if I am injured on the mountain” The answer is quite simply Yes. Provided that your position is known (i.e. you aren’t lost - we cant offer search and rescue costs)

Not much use really.

Be aware that they define off piste as ‘away from marked runs but within resort boundries’ ??? So valle blanche, Tula and north face bellecote are not covered!