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after all the fabulous comments on here we picked Snowcard. I was really disappointed
some of those comments may have been from me. I had a big 'off' in les gets, breaking my pelvis, hand and ribs and tearing my left rotator cuff.
Snowcard (and assistance international) were brilliant. My wife did all the ringing round, but didn't have any problems. I spoke to an English doctor (on the phone) within an hour of arriving at hospital so they could translate for me (arranged by the insurance company). Everything paid for and loads of reassurance all round.
Sorry you didn't have such a good experience.
One thing I did find very bad was the staffing of the hospital... I arrived on a Saturday, and was seen by the medical staff in the emergency department, but once they were done with me, I was put in a ward with virtually no staff. What few staff were there didn't actually know what was wrong with me (they saw my cast, and thought I just had a broken hand), so they didn't help me with anything - I had to walk to the toilet, and clean myself despite a broken pelvis and sacrum!!
when the doctor came to see me on the Monday he was furious that I was sat up, let alone getting out of bed. I had a (stable) fracture of my spine (albeit only my sacrum) and I was supposed to be immobile!
One last thing - to reference another current thread - the food in hospital (Cluses) was excellent 🙂
Dave
pretty sure the pompiers/ambulance are on a kick-back from private clinics. I got taken to a clinic in Thonon and we drove straight past the "NHS" hospital, so the EHIC was irrelevant as everything went on insurance.
And agree with MC's "last run" rule; if you have to ask, the answer's no.
I just got back and I'm one of those plaster clad crew. Fractured fibula on the last 100m, of the last run, on the last day. Was riding well within my limits, wasn't very tired at all, but bike slipped out on boardwalk as it didn't have any chicken wire and my tyres were slick with mud due to rain the night before. It happened on the black run from chatel to les lindarets, knew straight away that it wasn't good and ended up getting piggybacked down. €485 for drugs and cast at morzine clinic and £127 for seat for my leg on the flight the next day. Morzine clinic must be raking it in! Couldn't get to a hosp!
Jeepers tyredbiker that's cheap! headling vibes!
Bloody hell guys... i'm impressed we came back in one-piece after reading some of your posts.
Must admit, i saw plenty of people with carious cuts and bruises and some plaster casts when out there.
Guess that's what happens after 30 years of marriage.I think that's what happens when you're a callous git. Knowing someone for a long time is'nt really an excuse, is it?
That's another (arguably more common) way of looking at it! 😆
I've just come back from Morzine and although everyone returned unscathed, there was a few offs that a full face lid certainly saved the day on.
The innocuous looking one at 1.37 on this clip resulted in a dented chin guard on some rocks so god knows what a mess it might've been with a normal XC lid.
I'd never ride there without a full face lid and some pads and/or armour. The new Troy Lee stuff is light weight and not very bulky and works really well. After seeing a mate go over the bars and then do a scorpion impression as his heels arched round towards the back of his head at speed, I splashed out on a Leatt brace too this year.
I worked as a guide in Chamonix - NickF is spot on. We were near the heli-port and it was buzzing over several times a day.
To the OP - That is some sage advice Jester. I suppose that you can consider that Insurance is the 'correct tool for the job' but what you present here is the Knowledge to use it properly, which is utterly essential in these circumstances.
You can end up feeling stuck in Blighty too though! I smashed my wrists to pieces in April up at Mabie on the little bit of Orange jumps near the start. I was stuck in Dumfries and Galloway Hospital for a week because Leeds PCT wouldn't give up a bed! The Orthopedic surgeons in Dum And Gal couldn't fix me and the sepcitalists in Leeds(Rob Farnell and Doug Campbell - Legends!) could. But because the wrong person in Scotland requested my transfer, Leeds wouldn't do it! Pure Protocol, no consideration of the implications. Ok, I know it was only Scotland but when your stuck, your stuck and you may as well be on Mars for all the good it does you.
(nearly) mended now. 2 more ops maybe?
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@mattbibbings - OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that makes my stable pelvis fracture look really tame!
get mended soon!
Dave
crashtestmonkey - Memberpretty sure the pompiers/ambulance are on a kick-back from private clinics. I got taken to a clinic in Thonon and we drove straight past the "NHS" hospital, so the EHIC was irrelevant as everything went on insurance.
This is why a lot of people believe insurance is not needed. If you dont have any you will get all your treatment under reciprocal arrangements without paying. The only thing you will not be covered for is repatriation
contrary to popular belief it is very unlikely you will be charged for evacuation off the mountain and your hospital treatment will be covered
contrary to popular belief it is very unlikely you will be charged for evacuation off the mountain and your hospital treatment will be covered
http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/EHIC/Pages/about-the-ehic.aspx
What isn’t covered by the EHIC?
hideThe EHIC is not an alternative to travel insurance. It will not cover any private medical healthcare or [b]costs such as mountain rescue in ski resorts[/b], being flown back to the UK, or lost or stolen property. Therefore, it is important to have both an EHIC and a valid private travel insurance policy. Some insurers now insist you hold an EHIC and many will waive the excess if you have one.The EHIC will not cover your medical expenses if you are going abroad specifically to have treatment (including giving birth). Find out more about planned treatment abroad.
You may not be able to use the card in some parts of the EEA as state-provided healthcare may not be available.
Yes - but in actual practice you do not get charged for evacuation off the mountain unless you have insurance.
There has been mutterings about charging people for evacuation off the mountains but it is not normal practice.
All having insurance does is ensure you can be repatriated ( in a very expensive manner) and that you will be treated in private clinics to bump the bill up. If you do not have travel insurance you will not end up with cripplingly huge bills
Are you suggesting that it's not really worth people getting insurance? When a mate of ours crashed over in Switzerland a few years back, Snowcard were fantastic and covered everything (including replacing his bike, helmet, body armour, etc), they were helpful at every stage. If he had relied on his E111 only, then he'd have been up a certain creek without means of propulsion.
good point made there TandemJeremy!
There are a lot of novice riders out in the PDS and its not a forgiving place to ride if you aint well suited to a bit of rough stuff. The only down side with the ever growing influx of people going to the PDS with little experience over and above flat forests in the south of the UK is the bad press it gets us and the rising cost of insurance (however thanks to TJ this shouldnt make much difference.
Granted everyone has to start somewhere, but maybe if you aint confident riding fast hard descents in the peaks or lakes then you should really think twice about actually going to the pds. After all its not a nice place to ride if you are inexperienced. As an experienced rider whos done the alps loads it still beats me up riding in teh PDS and ill be honest, i dont like it as everything is either featureless due to the traffic it gets so you ride faster than you should as there is nothing to slow you = crash, or the tracks are blown out to buggery which means you cant hold on to the bar any more = crash.
Even people saying they werent riding out of their comfort zone, the front wheel just washed out for example. I know its harsh but you prob were riding something that was steeper, much looser or greasier, faster and with poor tyres, knowledge of correct braking or not braking, and like most things in the PDS, poorly built so it can kick you in the air at some awful angle for example.
I did some riding with Rugby MTB club and im sure the riding they do is somewhat similar to swindon (in that its not the peaks) and id worry about most of the chaps (sorry if i offend anyone) riding in the peaks, let alone the alps. They can do straight lines fast but throw some rocks into the mix and 90% didnt know what had hit them. Its only natural but they would be out of their comfort zone.
At the end of the day accidents do happen and you cant look at them on an individual basis and make assumptions, but when you have a town of broken people it speaks volumes
Yes, there will be people outside of their comfort zone and yes, you do get a lot of people walking around with broken bones but you have to factor in that it is a town full of mountain bikers, riding more in a week than they probably do in six months at home and some of those people are going to push themselves more than they would on their local loop. Like it or not, mountain biking is a dangerous sport and at some point you will crash, and it is more likely to happen in somewhere like Morzine than it is on your local hill that you know like the back of your hand. To not get insurance is just daft.
I wonder how the percentages / ratios of bikers who injure themselves at somewhere like Afan, compare to those in Morzine?
I disagree with a lot of what you say Bland.
It's a bit odd that most people go to the PDS for their first Alps trips, considering how DH-orientated the resorts there are.
I know I was out of my depth on my first visit there anyway, and going back last year it was only really the unofficial Dh stuff and the epic XC rides that I enjoyed. I do agree with Bland about the main DH tracks at Morzine/Les Gets.
These guys were a daily occurence on our trip, we saw them fly into Chatel town centre helipad 4 times on one evening alone on the Saturday PPdS day... probably because it was hot, dry and fast.
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I ride in the peaks weekly, where to be honest the surfaces are worse (big loose rocks) rather than mud and small loose pebbles stuff, although obviously not as steep or for he same duration. You could tell the people that had never ridden surfaces like that before!
The twice I crashed was because the friends I was following crashed lol... once going into Les Gets down a fast tight single track with a drainage rut from the rain... slid on my face for 15m - 20m (yay for full face). Then once at the Morgins down hill going to slow down a steep wet rooty bit, again full face saved the day (probably)
Oh and those helipilots are amazing... the skill and control they have between trees, power lines, zip lines and ski lifts is unbelievable!
We regularly take beginners to PdS and they love it. It's a great resort for them. There are downhill tracks but there's loads of other stuff too and not riding up makes the downs a lot easier.
I dont think its the beginners that are the problem. Its the middle aged men who've only been riding bikes (round trail centres) for a couple of years. But they've been on a skills course, just bought a Lapierre and have seen the lads in Dirt mag doing jumps and drops so they think they should take it on whilst on holiday!
Fair enough, push yourself, but at least do it at home where its not going to have anyhwere near the consequences.
Saying that, I fell off on a straight bit of trail and broke my little finger whilst in the alps.
I got a full facer and full top half compression suit for my trip. It won't stop everything but it certainly limited damage for the times I did fall off - abrasions etc. Can't be certain that it stopped anything else. It didn't stop the cracked rib from one big stack
For the cost of probably less than any insurance excess I'd say it was a worthy investment as I've used them since. Thanks to Crashtestmonkey for the sale of the dainese body armour and spine protector he sold whilst recovering from his elbow injury as described earlier !
Oh and as for pushing yourself, whilst you try to take care, I think you do push yourself a bit. I certainly did. Thanks to a bunch of guys in our chalet letting us tag on for a day and spending time with us showing us a drop off, approach speeds, lines etc I did stuff I never would have done with just my mates. That said we picked a drop off with a good run out, no big rocks so you could say it was calculated risk. Why go to such a place if you'll only ride what you would ride at home - apart from the view. Just be sensible and do things in increments.
Hope the OP's other half makes a quick recovery.
Going out Friday and now wish I hadn't read this 🙂
Got a full face and ins.
I'll hopefully be posting in the other thread next and not this one.
Speedy recovery to the injured.
You'd be mad not to take out appropriate insurance for the small sums involved which is really there for the worse case scenarios.
Its the middle aged men who've only been riding bikes (round trail centres) for a couple of years. But they've been on a skills course, j
Waves 🙂
HELLO
I'll be a happy man if I've wasted £38 on insurance.
If your foreign language skills are not 100% - I would thoroughly recommend one of these:
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For less than a tenner - it'll get your meaning across worldwide with no need to play charades. Would never travel without mine again.
We regularly take beginners to PdS and they love it. It's a great resort for them. There are downhill tracks but there's loads of other stuff too and not riding up makes the downs a lot easier.
I'm sure this is true, but a lot of people just turn up with no guiding sorted and throw themselves down the Chavannes run.
a lot of people just turn up with no guiding sorted and throw themselves down the Chavannes run.
Aye, that be me. I done the same at Whistler, Squamish and Sun Peaks (Kamloops) too.
To me you only need a guide if your riding unmarked tracks and have a chance of getting lost.
Trust your skills, know your equipment and be prepared.
There is absolutely no difference form riding abroad to riding at home, the laws of gravity still applies.
i'm in Chatel the now, for my tuppence, is to be honest with your skill and equipment capability level.
the biggest skill in riding, is the assessment of what comes before you, and managing your ability to deal with it.
i think sometimes the equipment can forgive a lack of assessment/ability, but only for so long, especially in the types of terrain around here.
my own skill level has been found out in the last few days, in regard to understanding how different the trail conditions here can be each day, depending on the weather, luckily even though the bike and i are pretty bruised, i am still able to learn a small bit more.
Yes - but in actual practice you do not get charged for evacuation off the mountain unless you have insurance.There has been mutterings about charging people for evacuation off the mountains but it is not normal practice.
TJ, can I ask you to substantiate this claim? Additionally, can you tell the people who've been charged €2000 and upwards for helicopter rescue that they in fact didn't need to pay, and that it must be some sort of admin error.
As NickF said there are plenty charged, only reason it was free in Les Gets for a while was Kona sponsored anyone who crashed within the bike park.
I have a friend who nearly lost a finger to frostbite after two nights snowholing on the haute route-the mate he was skiing with was told he couldn't claim the cost of the hotel near the hospital because he already had a hotel booking in the area...the fact it was a hut 3 VERTICAL km from the hotel didn't seem a problem to the insurers!
There is no charge usually levied for mountain rescue in France. Its a free service. Same in switzerland. Austria is different.
some local Mayers in France will sometimes levy charges in their area they are responsbile for but these are hard to enforce. been some court cases on this.
Private companies will charge you, the police will not. If you don't have insurance you will not be charged - but you might have to wait for surface transport not the helicopter
Insurance will not always cover you anyway
Pays yer money and takes your choice - and the situation is fluid
Pay the money, obviously. Only someone who considers helmets to be a hindrance would go without insurance, surely. Plus, if going guided, most insist on it and for good reason.
stopadoodledoo - or someone who understood what little you are actually paying for.
The general principle (since 1733) says that rescue services in the mountains and sea in France are free of charge.
Sorry to hear the OPs story - sounds like the accident could have occurred anywhere with 50m of elevation + rocks and a bit of bad luck.
The number of crashes here are all down to the shear amount of descending you can get in if you're just riding the lifts all day for a week - it must be equivalent to a years worth of riding in the UK if you climb everything you descend - it's simple probability really. Plus riding at inappropriate speed on inappropriate bikes for the trails - (generalising here, nothing about the OP's tail).
I never understand why people come on holiday here on their 5 / 6 inch trail bikes and do nothing but ride the chairlifts + DH trails. Surely one run of the Chavannes is enough to put them off rattling their bikes to pieces! If you do a bit of exploring, it not only prolongs the life of your bike, it increases your chances of making it home without a big stack! Safety first and all that.
Someone asked for some statistics on the PPDS and somewhere like Afan
We used a guide last week who is part of the PPDS organisation team and he told us that there are typically 15 to 25 people each day who need to be extracted from the course due to injury
There were 2,000 riders each day, so we're looking at approx 1% of riders needing
He said its much worse when its dry because people were going much quicker
Afan - sorry - no idea