I used to be a Patroller (and am currently recertifying). When I’m I. The Alps I always pay the insurance fee with the lift pass (season pass in my care) and run a Dogtag as well – first one means if I do spanner myself or one of the family is spannered they will get off with no hassle. Dogtag picks up the rest. Cost of running Patrol is quite high beyond the normal safety stuff. As said there is (has) to be in france anyway a posted list of rescue costs. In UK we were v lucky in that historically rescues were done by raf and seen as good training. Now it’s outsourced things are still good but a touch more picky. I have one friend who is only alive due to a pretty epic bit of flying by a raf pilot at night to get him. Anyhoo, get insurance and ride safe.

As for ski patrol, I went for a couple of runs before the lifts open with the ski patrol in Les Arcs last week. Can recommend this is you are in a resort Ehich does the same.

Where the **** can you get off piste ski insurance, which also includes park, for a family for twenty quid?

Dream on

We pay 3€ per day on our ski pass and it covers the lot. This is with snowrisk. Honest, it’s not a dream..!

Forgot to mention that my lad broke his arm on the 1st day this year in Morzine. Clinic were more than happy to fit hi-tech removable cast rather than the above elbow version. Clinic were brilliant but really couldn’t care less about E111 – just chuckles and said claim from insurance.

Who the heck does their skiing wholly on piste?

Surprisingly a lot. Same bunch as those who go to one single resort in a multi-resort area and do the same half a dozen runs all week.

Also, some parts of Europe, especially Italy I’ve found, they all just stick to the pistes, and some fence a lot of the good stuff off.

That’s why I like North America. Off piste is massive and within boundaries, patrolled and avalanche controlled. I’m never too sure how the insurance works though if it says no off piste but it’s within resort boundary. I always get the impression that rule is for out of bounds stuff, backcountry etc, but like a lot of insurance it’s deliberately vague.

p.s. Barclays Travel Pack insurance with their bank account is one that has off piste exclusion, or at least you have to have a “guide” (!). Shame as otherwise I’d get it as works out a decent deal and a month worth of ski cover.

You can of course instruct whoever you’re with to drag you to the nearest piste in case of an accident.

Going back a decade or two, piste patrol in Val d refused to take any action for my mum until a credit card had been handed over. (ACL as it transpired after getting to Hospital)

Either you or your mum are grossly distorting the truth. The “non-assistance à personne en danger” law has been en vigeur longer than that.

There’s some good stuff on this thread and some bollocks which rivals the Brexit propaganda.

Piste rescue costs are posted up in the resorts for the various sectors. You pay a modest bill for transport by the pompiers or SAMU once down the hill. Whether it’s private or public care your EU health card will much reduce your bill and mean no up front payments. The treatment will be second to none unless you get your UK insurers or legal team involved in which case they’ll do the minimum to get you onto a plane without being sued – trust them. You won’t get banned from skiing but you might be advised not to – masochism and suicide are both perfectly legal.

Junior has tested the system enough times to prove it just works, and insurance costs can save some potentially enormous bills if you need helicopter rescue and then medicalised transport back to the UK.

You won’t get banned from skiing but you might be advised not to

He’s back now and the “ban” is a medical certificate (in French) saying that he’s unfit to ski for 21 days

Off piste is massive and within boundaries, patrolled and avalanche controlled. I’m never too sure how the insurance works though

Check your policy wording. Carefully. For family holidays, where any “off piste” is just slackcountry and well-within boundaries, we just use Columbus Direct who give pretty decent winter sports cover. Even then they have some wiggle room.

From the policy document I have from last week:

Winter sports activities
Where the appropriate additional premium has been paid for winter sports cover you will be
covered for skiing and snowboarding as well as the following winter sports activities.

✓ Air boarding
✓ Big foot skiing
✓ Cross country skiing (recognised paths)
✓ Dry slope skiing/snowboarding
✓ Glacier skiing/walking
✓ Ice cricket *
✓ Ice windsurfing *
✓ Kick sledging
✓ Langlauf
✓ Mono-skiing
✓ Nordic skiing (recognised paths)
✓ Off-piste skiing/snowboarding (within resort boundaries)
✓ Ski randonnee
✓ Ski run walking
✓ Ski skimming
✓ Ski touring
✓ Skidooing ‡*
✓ Sledging
✓ Snow blading
✓ Snow shoeing
✓ Snow tubing
✓ Snow zorbing
✓ Snowcat skiing (with a professional guide)
✓ Snowmobiling ‡*
✓ Tobogganing

…

YOU ARE NOT COVERED
1. For any accident occurring whilst you are skiing or snowboarding off-piste outside the resort boundaries or without a qualified guide.

(realistically who has a qualified guide when cutting off-piste, in-bounds, between two adjacent pistes?)

For proper out-of-bounds off-piste adventures I’ve used MPI Brokers which was set up by an off-piste skier and is recommended by Henry’s Avalanche Talk.

Insurance Advice

(realistically who has a qualified guide when cutting off-piste, in-bounds, between two adjacent pistes?)

That’s part of the resort in some cases. The demand for safe off-piste runs has prompted the creation of a “zone sécurisée non damée” in some resorts. The area is made safe from avalanche, natural risks are signed but the pistes are unprepared and loosely defined.

That’s part of the resort in some cases.

Yeah it is part of the resort, controlled and within bounds. However I think the insurance company may/could still argue that you are “off piste” without a qualified guide.

I rarely ski of piste, I just prefer skiing on piste. And it has been like that for 40 years.

you are “off piste” without a qualified guide.

Even though there is no suggestion you should hire a guide to use the area (and a guide would point you at EFS), ski instructors (who aren’t guides) are free to use it for teaching, it’s covered by the ski patrol, in local law it’s part of the resort… .

Anyhow, ask your usual insurer what they have to offer, Allianz covers me for every sport/outdoor activity which isn’t specifically excluded, which as I remember it is base jumping and a couple of other crazy things you can do in the air.

Going back a decade or two, piste patrol in Val d refused to take any action for my mum until a credit card had been handed over. (ACL as it transpired after getting to Hospital)

Either you or your mum are grossly distorting the truth. The “non-assistance à personne en danger” law has been en vigeur longer than that.

Were you there Edukator? I’m not sure you were. Seems a bit rude.

It’s extremely rude to grossly mislead about French law and French ski patrols, it’s xenophobic, racist even.

French ski patols have not do not and will not refuse to rescue someone “until a credit card had been handed over”. In France you do not need to carry money or any form of identity. Ski patrols are there to rescue people however rich or poor, whatever their origin and without discrimination. Under no condition will they ever not rescue someone because they cannot produce a credit card. If they did it would be a professional “faute grave” and they would be liable to prosecution for “non assistance en personne en danger”. Nothing has changed for a very long time, 1985 for la loi de la montagne which covers rescue and 1992 for non-assistance à personne en danger. Well before your “decade or two”.

I wasn’t there, nor perhaps were you, that’s the only reason I’m not calling you a liar. I have however skied Val d’Isere since 1987, reside in a French ski resort in the Winter, have a son who is an ESF instructor, and ski regularly with ski gendarmes. I’ve been present at rescues most years for the last “decade or two” because I’m often skinning up outside the jalons when people have accidents and personally take the “non-assistance à personne en danger” law seriously so I scamper over, giver first aid and stay with people until they’re carried off by the ski patrol – it has never ever been a question rescue being dependant on payment.

La loi de la montagne 1985 stipulates that it’s the commune (resort) that is financially responsible for rescue. Once you have been rescued they can bill you, but they can’t make rescue dependant on payment.

In France you do not need to carry money or any form of identity.

Can I clarify, please, that you mean “… in order to be rescued”? I’ve understood that it is a legal requirement, in France, to carry ID and prove your identity to police or gendarmes if asked; is that still so?

Game, set and match Edukator.

Chateau sir, Chateau.
Really nice to see people questioning the bollox that is routinely trotted out by insurance companies and random stories.

As to the person above talking about wiggle room…… it’s not wiggle room, they just won’t pay out. End of. Why waste money buying it

No need to carry ID in France or even possess any. The national ID card isn’t obligatory, the government says so:

https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F11601

However, it’s quite handy having some form of ID on you and can save a lot of time if the police or gendarmes do take an interest, especially if you’re foreign.