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HAT’s Off-Piste & Off-Season series: Travel Insurance Policies: Small Print, Big Risks

In HAT’s Off-Piste & Off-Season Safety Series you’ll find tips on how to ‘Have Fun, Be Safe’ no matter what you’re up to this summer.

 

 

Travel Insurance Policies: Small Print, Big Risks

Travel Insurance is something many of us have in preparation for a winter or summer holiday, but do we really understand what we’re covered for? And more importantly what we’re not covered for? Not reading the small print can be costly, adding insult to your injuries.  

 

Rescues that happen Off-Piste in the winter are often not covered by standard insurance policies, leading to hefty bills for individuals injured in the powder. Even more sobering is that someone injured on the nursery slopes will often not be covered if they have had as much as a shandy at lunchtime.

 

Having adequate insurance cover is something Claire Bouteille, the British Consul based in Lyon, is passionate about. The British Consulate ran a poster campaign during the winter which highlights the risks faced during so called 'dangerous' sports like skiing. HAT has been working closely with the consulate on this campaign and its themes - one of which is making people aware of the fact that they need to think clearly about their travel insurance otherwise they could find themselves hurt and poor! See the poster here from that campaign.

 

 

As we all pack for our beach holidays, are you adequately covered for your summer adventures?  

 

We have Top Tips from Val d'Isère's resident Doctor, Alan Griffiths, on how to choose appropriate insurance for your holiday. These tips were originally published for the winter seasonnaire community in Val d’Isère but the principles can be applied to all kinds of holidays, including the one YOU are taking this summer.

 

An advertisement for a bank recently asked the question: Could your bank account withstand a broken leg in Val d’Isère ? It’s a valid question. Here Dr Alan Griffiths from the English Medical Centre gives the low-down on insurance should you injure yourself here.

Statistics show that 3 out of every 1000 skiers will injure themselves each day. The rate is about 50% higher for boarders, and once you start jumping in the snowpark it gets even worse. Nobody likes to think that they will be the one to get injured, but several times a day it does happen to somebody. A basic piste rescue costs anything from a couple of hundred Euros to several thousand Euros if a helicopter is involved. So it’s vital that you have good insurance cover should the worst come to the worst.

EHIC

The free European Health Insurance Card is NOT the same as a proper insurance policy. It just entitles European citizens to the same state cover that a French person would enjoy. In practice this means you are entitled to 65% reimbursement of your public health costs. You still have to fork out at the medical centre or pharmacy and then it’s up to you to claim your money back from the French social security system. Not very good for cash flow! More importantly, it does not cover any piste rescue costs, nor the cost of repatriation.

VIE VAL D’IS CARD

This provides seasonnaires with unlimited cover for piste and off-piste rescue as well as hospital and pharmacy costs up to 3000€ relating to snowsports injuries. It does not cover you for visits to the resort’s medical centres. It only costs 18€ for the season and also entitles you to discounts at various shops and restaurants around town, with 15% off at the supermarket.

CARTE NEIGE

This costs 50€ for the season and covers you for piste rescue, even if you are off-piste without a guide. If you take out option B for another 10€ it also includes snowsports cover for medical centre and pharmacy bills, as well as hospital bills. But beware, the maximum amount for medical costs is only 3000€. It is great for piste rescues as you just show the card and you don’t have to pay. You will still have to hand over your hard earned dosh at the medical centre and pharmacy, and then you have to claim it back from the Carte Neige people after submitting an EHIC claim if you are a European citizen : quite a convoluted process. The same cover can be bought on a daily basis with the Carré Neige liftpass insurance.

PROPER INSURANCE

For full peace of mind you cannot beat proper travel insurance policies. Unlike the Vie Val D’is card and Carte Neige, they have the advantage of providing cover for accidents that occur off the slopes (such as slipping over in the street and breaking your leg, ankle, wrist, coccyx…). They needn’t be expensive, and if you shop around you can get insurance for the season for as little as 200€. Always check how much the excess is (that’s the first part of a claim that you have to pay out of your own pocket). The cheaper policies tend to have higher excesses, and you may find that you have to pay the first 250€ of the claim yourself.

As everyone knows, insurance companies are renowned for not paying out if they don’t have to. So it is essential to CHECK THE SMALL PRINT. If you are planning to ski off-piste without a qualified guide, make sure you have cover for this.

At the end of the day, you cannot be over insured. So if there is any doubt about what you are covered for, you could combine a proper insurance policy with the free EHIC as well as either a Vie Val D’is card or a Carte Neige. Remember, it could be you coming down in the blood wagon this season!

Have you had a nightmare experience with insurance or found out you’ve not been covered for a rescue on or Off-Piste? Tell us about it via the ‘comment’ box below. Your experiences may help your fellow Off-Piste adventure lovers to avoid a similar situation….

Read the full article on The Mountain Echo website http://www.themountainecho.co.uk/features/are-you-sure-youre-well-insured/

FRENCH PRESS COVERAGE: The British Consul talks Mountain Safety with HAT & the town of Val d'Isère!

Check out our coverage in the regional newspaper le Dauphiné Libéré!

(See english translation below)

 

 

Claire Bouteille, the British Consul based in Lyon, visited Val d’Isere on Wednesday to meet with a group of representatives from the Local Council, the Tourist Office, Piste Security and us at Henry’s Avalanche Talk. The meeting had been planned for a long time, with the goal of discussing the impact a ‘Mountain Safety’ campaign directed at British holidaymakers in the Alps has had during the winter 2009/10. This campaign, of which the slogan ‘Don’t catch your death’ was perceived as inflammatory by some, warned holiday makers of the excesses that can affect you when spending 8 days at a winter sports destination. Through this deliberately poignant slogan, the misuse of alcohol, as well as off-piste skiing without being properly informed, are referred to. The consul stated that the British Ambassador would like to continue this awareness campaign again next winter. This campaign, before holidaymakers leave the UK and while they are on holiday in the mountains, will be based on the affects of alcohol, cold and altitude on the body, wearing helmets and the lack of ski insurance. In order to slim down these ideas, the consul listened attentively to the opinions of the professionals present (including us at HAT!), choosing Val d’Isère as a pilot station. A summary is being written up by the local team present, and highlighting the situation here in Val d’Isère. The work done will allow the construction of the awareness campaign to be carried out more effectively.

 

 

There was some engaging discussion around off piste & avalanche awareness as well as other areas of concern about people on holiday in the winter sports environment. For example: wearing helmets, as well as the best means of raising awareness about how altitude and cold, and alcohol affects people in these conditions and can have a huge impact on the body. The question of having adequate insurance cover for rescue and mountain sports was also debated, since many insurers do not cover claims made for off-piste skiing even though they say they do in some or most cases.

 HAT is working closely with everyone involved to ensure that our message to ‘Have Fun, Be Safe’ is heard loud and clear! Videos and reports in French available via this link to Radio Val d'Isère's web site: http://www.radiovaldisere.com/avalines.php

 

Off Piste Article in Boston U Mag

Click on the image below to go to the on-line article (hard copy issue to be delivered this week)

 

Summary in Telegraph

Lots of people have been asking me to post the basic summary of how we approach having fun and being safe off-piste: We ask the question, "Is it safe out there?" The answer is that it depends on you!

Where you go and when

How you go down or up and

How well prepared you are

Yesterday's article in the Daily Telegraph's On-line Travel edition featured an article on HAT and having fun and staying safe while riding off-piste. It provides a detailed summary of the answers to the question. From there you can come up with reminders & check-list.

Dan Egan's Cult Classic Premier is a big hit in Val d'Isère

HAT hosted Dan Egan's world premier of his 4 DVD set entitled, Egan Entertainment CULT CLASSICS at dicks tea bar in Val d'Isère. 

Dan (below) brought us off-piste from Turkey to Russia and from western Canada to Sugarbush, Vermont. The chronology of these skiing exploits were defined by thin skis and day-glow one piece suits at first.. and by the end, we were back in this century in wide skis and cool all-mountain equipment - feels good!

Attended by young and old, guests of the resort as well as many saisonaires (some more 'seasoned' than others). All had a great time thanks in large part to Dan's live commentary combined with action and adventure footage most of which featured him and his brother, the 'EGAN BROTHERS', riding off piste slopes through the decades

Henry in Ski and Board magazine this month

Download the original article that appeared in Ski+Board's November, 2008 edition Download Ski and board Mag Nov edition HAT

Here is a transcript of the interview

Keeping the jaws of the mountain empty

 

Poor early-season snow conditions in last year in Europe meant that avalanche fatalities were relatively low. But as this season gets underway, Daniel Elkan meets tireless avalanche safety campaigner Henry Schniewind, to get some essential advice and hear his plans to keep the bodycount down.

 

Pick any bar; in any ski resort, with a TV screen. Guaranteed, at any time of day, you’ll see videos of skiers and snowboarders bursting through fluffy, exploding piles of untouched fresh powder. The images are enticing enough to make you want to drop your gluvine and dash out to do the same. What the films don’t show, of course is the hidden danger that such great terrain holds: avalanche. For the past ten*** years, avalanche expert Henry Schniewind has been on a mission to redress the balance and give skiers and boarders the knowledge they need to reduce the risk of getting caught.

 

S+B In recent years, the percentage of off-piste skiers and boarders getting avalanched has increased – especially in areas relatively close to the pistes. Why is this?

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It’s a combination of a number of things. One is the evolution of equipment. Wider skies make it easier to ski off piste and in deeper snow and snowboards obviously do. So you get more people able to go off piste - and more quickly. It used to take at least 20 weeks of struggling in deep snow to be able to develop a technique for off-piste. Now with wider skis you can be off-piste within a couple of weeks and on a snowboard it only takes a few days. But when people learn so quickly they miss out on resort experience and informal education during which they would hear about the dangers of avalanches. The end result is that people’s off-piste skiing ability far outweighs their mountain awareness, especially of avalanches.

 

S+B Is marketing part of the problem?

There are so many videos, adverts and magazine photos of people charging through beautiful, deep, white powder snow. You could call it powder adventure marketing. It comes through the resort tourist offices, through equipment manufacturers. The images are lovely but they don’t just attract people to the sport and the resort; they encourage people to venture off piste. The industry is providing people with the means to get off piste but it also has a responsibility to give people the knowledge of how to have fun and stay safe.

 

 

S+B Is that happening?

 

lA number of the tour operators are beginning to educate their staff. Ski World, Crystal , Inghams, YSE and Le Ski have been consistent in doing that over the years (at least those are the companies that hired HAT last year and the year before).  The typical employee of a tour operator wouldn’t have much knowledge of what is happening in off-piste, and they are a prime risk. But the industry needs to do a lot more.

 

S+B Do people really listen to the advice they are given?

 

Generally I think they do. But even if people have the knowledge, they can get caught out by human factors such as peer pressure. “Powder frenzy” is definitely a significant factor.. When it has just dumped overnight people look out their windows the next morning and think “If we don’t get there right now, we won’t get the first tracks,” That is when the basic principles go out the window. No amount of experience or knowledge is useful to you if you don’t apply it.

 

S+B There is trend toward more experienced people being killed in avalanches. What is behind that?

 

It is partly the human factor. But I think there there is something else too: even in unstable conditions, most of the time a slope that should avalanche won’t avalanche. So in the minds of those out there riding, the credibility of the people who are warning that there is a high avalanche risk, drops. On an unstable day, you could probably ski on 95 out of 100 really dangerous slopes and nothing would happen. Of the four avalanches you would set off, maybe one would kill you. But that means you can get away with it a lot. And people who ride a lot of dangerous slopes don’t consider themselves to be lucky. They think they are skilled, Instead they think people like me are alarmist and do not confront the dangers or they think: I’m really starting to get good at judging the slopes, I will be Ok. In my opinion that is why we had the biggest number of deaths (57) in recorded history in in 2005-6. Many of those were very experience people. For eight or nine years before that, the conditions were very stable, or if they weren’t stable, there wasn’t a great deal of snow on top of the unstable layer. So once there was a very unstable layer with lots of snow, they were going back to these same places that were dangerous before but then deadly on those occasions.

 

S+B Does safety equipment entice people into taking more risks?

 

Very probably, people with helmets, airbags, beepers end up taking more risks, even if it is a subconscious process. But you are much more likely to survive an accident with this equipment, so you do need to take this equipment with you, especially the beeper, shovel, probe combo. You just have to be aware of how it could influence your judgement of risk.

 

S+B If you get caught in an avalanche, how does carrying a beeper, shovel and probe affect your chances of survival?

 

In a nutshell, if you are still alive when the avalanche settles down you have 15 mintes to live. If your friends have this equipment and know how to use it, then they can find you in less than 15 minutes. But this is no guarantee, people have to understand that at least one fifth of all people caught in an avalanche are killed outright by the movement of snow. You can get smashed into trees, into rocks, taken over a cliff, into a gulley or a lake and your equipment won’t help you. If you think you can ride out an avalanche, you are playing Russian Roulette. That being said, if you get fully or partially buried and are still alive, the fact that you and your group are carrying beepers, shovels and probes increases your chances of survival by ****%.

 

S+B Whether a slope will avalanche depends on so many delicate factors. A little knowledge can a dangerous thing. Is it really worth trying to educate people?

 

It is absolutely.  People will go off piste without a guide, doing this with ignorance is far more dangerous. If you understand the basics then at least you know what you don’t know, even this basic knowledge can help you manage your risks

 

S+B What can people achieve from attending your presentations and courses?

 

When people come to a talk, they gain an awareness of....

On the courses we want to enable people to assess slope safety without having to stop every two minutes and dig a snow pit. The courses involve lots riding, lots of slope angle judgement, which is one of the most important skills.

At the end of the day, we want to give people the ability to enjoy the powder more safely.