Hazards of our Sport and the need for adequate Insurance Cover

The Officers and Committee of the Eagle Ski Club wish to remind members that Ski touring and mountaineering are dangerous and occasionally life-threatening sports and that other outdoor activities organised by the Club (e.g. Week-end meets in the UK) may also be hazardous with some risk of serious personal injury.

Participants in all these activities must be aware of and accept these risks and must be responsible for their own actions and involvement. The Club itself, tour and meet leaders, and individual Club members taking part in listed Club tours, meets etc. are all covered for Public liability by an insurance policy (up to £5 million) obtained through our affiliation to SnowSport England (formerly, the English Ski Council). This cover is world-wide apart from the exclusion of the USA and Canada. Another specific exclusion is of motorised sports but it is not foreseen that these are ever likely to form part of a formal Club event. Members taking part in any activity which is not part of the Club’s formal programme will not be covered by the above policy and are advised to consider taking out personal insurance for third-party risks. All members taking part in Club meets involving ski touring or any off-piste activity are required to have adequate personal cover to pay the cost of “getting them off the mountain”, by helicopter where necessary. They are also strongly urged to have additional cover to pay for possibly extended local hospitalisation and/or repatriation. That cover should extend to all medical emergencies and not just accidents. It is the member’s responsibility to ensure that the insurance does provide cover for all the intended activities.

The range of policies available is too wide for the Club to make specific recommendations and Members are urged to do their own research. It is hoped that the following notes, though not exhaustive, will be helpful to that end.
The policy/policies you need will depend very much on your personal circumstances, existing cover, age etc. Some otherwise good policies become uncompetitive for members who have passed 60. Some annual policies can be a bargain if you get away a lot and climb etc in the summer too. What is absolutely essential from a touring point of view is that you have adequate cover to get you off the mountain (i.e. helicopter rescue) and provide urgent medical support. Membership of the Austrian Alpine Club UK, which also gives you reciprocal rights in most Alpine Huts (see our website for link, Tel: 01929 554 729) and Carte Neige (available from all French ski resorts, www.ffs.fr) both include this sort of basic cover worldwide without age restrictions. By themselves these will not provide adequate total insurance. E.g. The AAC cover does provide for “rescue, repatriation and medically necessary treatment that cannot be postponed”, for leisure activities worldwide, but you would certainly need an E111, soon to be replaced by the European Health Insurance Card, too. This provides reciprocal “national health” rights in the countries of the EU and also Norway, Iceland, Leichtenstein & Switzerland. If you are travelling during 2005, you should make sure you have the new style E111 form which will be valid until the end of the year. During the course of 2005 the UK will be adopting the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This will be automatically issued to those who apply for the new E111 form and tick the box to receive the new card which will replace the E111 in 2006. Details from www.dh.gov.uk, see “Health Advice For Travellers”. It goes without saying that cover for areas outside Europe, particularly North America, will need to be very significantly higher. You might also consider obtaining cover against loss of a deposit or other non-refundable payments for a Tour from which you had to withdraw late because of injury etc. on a previous trip.

Insurers you should consider might include, the BMC, Tel: 0161 445 4747, the SCGB, Tel: 08700 759 759; Douglas Scott Tyrie, Tel 020 8522 3424; Snowcard, Tel: 01327 262 805; and Fogg Travel Insurance Services, Tel: 01623 631 331. We are still hoping to make some arrangement eventually with the BMC that would allow all our members to buy their insurance, but that is unlikely to occur for at least another season or two.