the old insurance question

Hi

I'm new and have been reading previous insurance threads with interest. Does anyone have any insurance recommendations for a week in France in January?

We've never skied abroad before, and after reading a LOT of insurance small print I'm struggling to find the magic combo of:
- off piste without guide (for occasional drifting off piste)
- search and rescue
- coverage for hired skis, boots and helmet

Is bog standard winter sports cover plus Carre Neige the answer?

Any help appreciated, thank you.

Hi, welcome. Your post says first ski holiday abroad, does this mean First ski holiday ever but done a couple of lessons on dry slope or snowdome?

Skied extensively in Scotland? Or first time skier?

Unless the answer is you have skied extensively in Scotland I would assume you will be taking lessons? If so you really don't need the "off piste without a guide" part of the insurance you are worried about."Drifting" by accident whilst having a lesson will be covered, deliberately skiing out of the area is another matter entirely, and unless you have the relevant equipment (tranceiver/shovel/probe) the knowledge and practise of using them, have had avy training to understand and avoid risks of avalanche plus knowledge of the local area (cliffs etc)then you would be incredibly stupid to do so. (no offence implied, just pointing out the difference between accidental drifting on the edge of a marked run and actual off piste)

I have winter sports cover through my bank account and of course carry an EHIC card (ps, carry a photocopy of your passport photo page with you too, you sometimes need it to avoid red tape-it won't stop treatment if you don't but its easier to sort things out there and then) My insurance covers the equipment (owned/rented) but you do need to read the small print not all do. My friends like "Dogtag" insurance, they did pay up without quibble after a broken wrist in Austria.

Hi

Thanks for the quick reply. We've skied extensively in Scotland and in UK snowdomes, plus one of our friends used to be an instructor, so we weren't planning on official lessons. By off piste we meant 'the bits between the pistes', dotted red lines, whatever you want to call them - places that aren't really off piste, but that an insurer might try to claim are off piste.

Good tip on dogtag, thanks. Would we still need Carre Neige on top of that? (no worries if you don't know, just thought I'd ask in case!)

Thank you.

Don't know much about it TBH, I rarely ski in France and as my insurance is comprehensive (includes repatriation etc) I've never paid for extra cover where its not a neccessity.
I seem to remember seeing a link to more information on snowcrazys les arcs season thread if you look in the French section you should find it easily.

Dogtag is worth a look, but check their definitions of off piste closely.
PJ Hayman might be worth considering too.

In the event of a claim, all insurers will expect you to be able to prove that you were not reckless. Consider how you would achieve this.

Everything that is not on a marked, patrolled slope is off piste. Do you have the necessary safety equipment?

Hi Lily2222, and welcome to J2Ski :D

I bought my insurance this year from PJ Hayman through the Ski Club of GB. It does cover for off-piste etc. but there is a £250 excess for search and rescue, and it's not cheap. You don't have to be a member of the Ski Club of GB to buy it. My luggage is covered by our household insurance so I told them I didn't need that element of it, and that reduced the price a bit.

I will also buy the Carre Neige insurance with the lift pass, which costs about 2.80 euros per day, and take my EHIC card with me - so I should be well covered!

I have previously bought insurance through the Post Office (which was very cheap), but last time I did that it only covered off-piste if you were with an instructor or guide.

You should be able to buy insurance for the skis etc. from the hire shop in France - they are always trying to get us to buy it. But the trouble is that you are supposed to take reasonable care of them, which might possibly include carrying a chain and padlock with you and locking them up outside cafes. Most people seem to try and fool the thieves by splitting their skis and mixing them up when they leave them outside cafes.

Ally, what will the Carre Neige provide that your insurance doesn't?

andymol2 wrote:Ally, what will the Carre Neige provide that your insurance doesn't?

I think the main difference between them is that if I need to be rescued the rescue services will recognize the Carre Neige insurance and not ask to be paid 'up front' before they take me in the ambulance etc.

There have been stories where people have had to pay either in cash or with their credit cards first.

Apparently the reason for this is that local rescue services have been 'stung' by holidaymakers who weren't insured and they never got paid. Naturally they weren't very happy about this, as it can be very expensive to rescue people. It is a private service, not a government one.

Here are some prices I got from this website:

http://www.tignes.net/data/template_entetecontenu/14115-secours.pdf

The French use a comma instead of a full stop as a decimal point when writing numbers.