 Poster: A snowHead
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HI
Just looking to sort out insurance for next years trip and I am confused by the winter ski insurance add-on for most policies.They seem to cover lift pass loss(surely this can be reissued if initial purchase documentation is kept),piste closure(but with lots of exclusion),avalanche and ski loss(but only of own equipment-not hired, we hire ours so not really useful).I appreciate the importance of general travel insurance and the need for sufficient medical cover for accidents etc.
Am I missing something ?
It's only £20,but thats a couple of beers 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@going downhill fast, if you break your leg above the point that an ambulance will collect you, you’ll pay €400 for a blood wagon to ski you down.
If you do it in a bowl where you have to be lifted before skiing down, or if you break your back, that will require a chopper to collect you. And you’ll be charged several thousand €.
£20 more sounds like a bargain.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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err yes, getting taken off the mountain, private ambulance, local operation you are looking at £10k!! No ski insurance = full credit card pretty quickly!!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@going downhill fast, Check your bank insurance because most will be covered on that. Also check what is covered if the airline loses your baggage. Ski Gear is expensive in resort.
Injury on the piste is generally covered but off to the side would be an issue with most insurance from a bank.
In some countries you need public liability insurance and that is an issue with some "free" policies.
So when they specifically 'add on" a bit then IMHO that is a good thing because it will give you defined cover and not a degree of ambiguity.
Regarding lift passes, I don't see that as a problem but ski theft in some places would be a worry for me if I was hiring. Specific cover generally covers theft of skis.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Helicopter evacuation for us came out at £100/minute flight time, including airfield > piste, hovering 'round while the medic did an examination, piste>hospital and hospital>airfield. Plus the helo-doctor and paramedic, plus the pisteurs wh closed the piste and managed the landing site. Covered by the LV= winter policy.
When you say it's only £20 I'd just be sure that it does cover what you want it to and as you say, not just the secondary stuff. I'm thinking:
Helicopter Evacuation
On-piste accident staff
Medical specialists for the heli-evac
Medical translator for hospital discharge report & 'fit to fly' declaration
Flights home for injured
Flights out/home for a UK helper
Transfers airport/resort for injured and helper
Accommodation & subsistence for injured & helper if recuperation needed before repatriation
Transfers at home for helper and injured
It may be that your main policy covers this as part of the 'injury while on holiday' cover, irrespective of whether you're skiing or not, and the winter sport extensions only needs to cover secondary stuff like baggage and flight cancellation etc. But you need to be sure there aren't any gaps. For example, if you need to recover from injuries for a couple of weeks before you are declared Fit to Fly home (and indeed, are in a state to be able to), then you want the insurance to cover arranging suitable accommodation and the costs of a friend/family to fly out to be with you and help. In the peak periods, getting hotel rooms for two people at short notice for 2 weeks (or longer) will probably be non-trivial, both in terms of organisation and cost.
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Wed 23-11-22 12:10; edited 4 times in total
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Get it sorted as soon as you can, if any strikes are announced to take place when you travel then it will be harder to get cover as I just discovered. Ended up paying £240 for annual cover instead of about £80 for family.
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I may have misunderstood the OP’s point, but the winter sports “add-ons” that I have looked at all seem to be limited just to the risks that the OP has listed above, i.e. they don’t mention medical costs, rescue, liability, etc. They just appear to be a specific list of risks, none of which would normally result in high value claims. Is this because the big ticket items associated with winter sports are all covered under the terms of the general travel insurance policy and the winter sports add-on is just a few nice to have, but not vitally important, extras?
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Apologies for posting a virtual duplicate of @LaForet’s comments.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The way I understand it is that by ticking the winter sports add on it enables the medical cover part which is the big expense to be used for winter sports related injuries. If you don't then you aren't. The extras listed in the winter sports section are just a few bits you get not in a normal travel insurance policy.
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@Glosterwolf, That would make sense. So the main part of the policy would have an exclusion for winter sports events, unless the winter sports add-on is chosen.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I believe so but I'm no insurance expert.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Quote: |
That would make sense. So the main part of the policy would have an exclusion for winter sports events, unless the winter sports add-on is chosen.
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Yes, any travel insurance policy will have a list of "allowed activities", for which you are covered. If you injure yourself (or someone else) doing anything not on that list you won't be covered for anything. Snowsports won't be on the list of allowed activities unless you pay for the add-on.
As an example this is my policy: https://www.coverwise.co.uk/documents/UK/5/nonmed/Silver/6.02/ScheduleWording.pdf
look at p21-23, there is a list of general allowed activities on p21-22, and then the activities which are only covered if the winter sports add on is paid on p23. Some things are covered for medical etc, but not for liability or personal injury, eg ski-dooing. So if I injured someone else while doing that I wouldn't be covered for compensating them, and if I had a serious injury (like losing a limb, eye, paralysed) or died I would still be covered for medical expenses, but would not be paid the lump sum compensation that the policy gives for those serious injuries.
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Yeah, trouble is that insurers and policies, and policy extensions vary a lot. So for the OP, as you've probably gleaned from the responses, it's always best to be absolutely certain about what is and isn't covered - focusing on the really key stuff around heli-evac, recuperations costs, helpers and repatriation. Yes, thefts, cancellation, disruption, skipass loss etc. are important, but the big hassle and costs are around accidents and illnesses. Ideally, you'll have a core travel policy that has good cover that the Winter Sports Extension just, well, extends to skiing holidays, with a few secondary things included. But as the injured guy who travelled home with us discovered - to his cost - not all policies are the same by any means. And as zaphod424 says, be very careful about signing-up to something outside of pure skiing such as skidoo, or heli-ski excursions (or even a torchlit descent: You might think it's covered, but are you sure?).
Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much  on Wed 23-11-22 12:50; edited 2 times in total
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You know it makes sense.
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In France (I assume it’s the same elsewhere) you can add assurance for €3 a day to your pass. That’ll get you off the hill however they need to do it (and avoids paying it and claiming it back) but doesn’t offer the same medical or repatriation costs that a travel insurance policy will. But for rescue/recovery I think it’s extra money well spent as if they do have to take you off they just check your pass and then the costs get sorted for you.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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^+1
It may seems like overkill to take out the extra assurance you're offered at the caisse but speaking from experience, anything that simplifies the trauma and hassle of an accident and its aftermath is worth it. Remember that the injured party may be drugged-up to the eyeballs and in pain and not in a great state to have a discussion in French. Generally, the heli-evac can only carry the patient and anyone else has to get off the mountain and back to the accommodation, change, and then get to the hospital i.e. the injured party arrives at A&E all by themselves with no one else to halp with the admissions process. The less interaction needed the better. Another reason to always carry your GHIC on you. In addition, the aftermath of an incident lasts quite a while as all the individual bills come in: not having to process the bill from the helicopter company, the medics, and the pisteurs etc. is well worth the daily add-on to the ski pass.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| LaForet wrote: |
| And as zaphod424 says, be very careful about signing-up to something outside of pure skiing such as skidoo, or heli-ski excursions (or even a torchlit descent: You might think it's covered, but are you sure?). |
This is why it's important to read your insurance documents, as boring as it may seem. I know that my policy covers skidooing for medical expenses but not liability, and it does actually completely cover heli-skiing, but many policies don't.
You also need to be really careful with off-piste definitions, some policies will say "off piste is covered within the boundaries of the resort", which is fine in the US and Canada, but In Europe the edges of the pistes are the boundaries, off to the side skiing in the trees, or cutting across between pistes is NOT covered if your policy says this. Again, this is where I recommend the policy I have, as it just says that "off piste skiing not against the advice of the authorities", along with other things like glacier skiing, heli skiing, are covered with the winter sports add on, with no mention of resort boundaries, so I am covered anywhere off piste in Europe, but they stipulate that in the US and Canada off piste outside of the boundaries is only covered when with a guide.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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"off piste skiing not against the advice of the authorities" - where does level 2 avalanche risk sit with this?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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One of our family managed to injure himself the season before last. Simple injury -pulled calf but couldnt ski with it
He had to be collected off the piste and taken to the medical centre and ended up with a £250 bill for a small sled ride and medical check
He had the fag on of not speaking french, having to pay at the bottom of the piste etc
We take out the Carte Neige as that cuts out the hassle as its linked to the ski pass which they scan, and gives 50k euro of medical cover over what is covered under GHIC - essentially what the french are covered under their health scheme- as well as repatriation to the UK if needed - we hope it wont be
In the summer I used the GHIC card for x rays at the hospital and the medical exam and paid less than 20 euros
The one area people tend to ignore is third party cover just in case you crash into someone else and they claim off you which I'm now trying to sort out with little success as we need season cover
Its all about the risk you are willing to take and the costs you want to pay as well as ease
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Quote: |
off piste skiing not against the advice of the authorities" - where does level 2 avalanche risk sit with this?
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Ha! Excellent question which I debated at length some years ago with clueless customer lackofservice reps at Dog Tag insurance. When I said "what if there's an avalanche warning of 2?" they said "oh no, you'd not be covered if there's any avalanche warning". they also had no idea about the difference between the US and EU definitions of the "boundaries of the resort". I gave up at that point and took out a more sensible policy.
I also always had the local cover, usually seasonal, as being taken off the mountain with no questions asked worth the cost of a cup of coffee daily. When I broke my pelvis I only had to be sledged for less than half a mile though, and up a piste, so it wouldn't have been a big bill. Would have been a bill, though, which I'd have to have negotiated with my UK insurers. And they'd have kept my skis as a hostage till I paid, which would have complicated life for my brother in law, who was with me, and speaks not a single word of French.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@pam w, my daughter’s boyfriend with no assurance added to his pass (my fault - never done it before and never will again!) and no travel insurance (his fault - I’d forgotten that 22 year old lads are basically big toddlers) dislocated his shoulder and popped it back in himself. However by this time the sled had arrived which took him the 200m to a nearby road, where he was collected by ambulance and taken to the maison medicale in morzine. They x-rayed it and confirmed he had indeed dislocated it and had popped it back in. €600 for the “rescue” and €120 for the x-ray. Lesson learned for both of us!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
Lesson learned for both of us!
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Only learned for him if he had to pay the bill......
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| pam w wrote: |
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Lesson learned for both of us!
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Only learned for him if he had to pay the bill...... |
He paid a fair chunk of it to be fair to him - not bad for a student!
But that reminds me to make sure he’s got it sorted for this year…
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When we had the chalet one of our guests had a bit of a fall, nothing broken, but quite the knock to the head (while wearing a helmet). She had to have a blood wagon and assesment at the doctor - all it it cost several hundred euros... that's more than a few beers.
Imagine if it was a more serious injury than a bump on the head.
Think of all the beer that would buy.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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We did get a personally-signed letter from the CEO of Téléverbier to my wife, saying how sorry he was to hear about her accident and hoping that it wouldn't put us off returning to the 4 Vallées. Which was nice.
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| LaForet wrote: |
Helicopter evacuation for us came out at £100/minute flight time, including airfield > piste, hovering 'round while the medic did an examination, piste>hospital and hospital>airfield. Plus the helo-doctor and paramedic, plus the pisteurs wh closed the piste and managed the landing site. Covered by the LV= winter policy.
When you say it's only £20 I'd just be sure that it does cover what you want it to and as you say, not just the secondary stuff. I'm thinking:
Helicopter Evacuation
On-piste accident staff
Medical specialists for the heli-evac
Medical translator for hospital discharge report & 'fit to fly' declaration
Flights home for injured
Flights out/home for a UK helper
Transfers airport/resort for injured and helper
Accommodation & subsistence for injured & helper if recuperation needed before repatriation
Transfers at home for helper and injured
It may be that your main policy covers this as part of the 'injury while on holiday' cover, irrespective of whether you're skiing or not, and the winter sport extensions only needs to cover secondary stuff like baggage and flight cancellation etc. But you need to be sure there aren't any gaps. For example, if you need to recover from injuries for a couple of weeks before you are declared Fit to Fly home (and indeed, are in a state to be able to), then you want the insurance to cover arranging suitable accommodation and the costs of a friend/family to fly out to be with you and help. In the peak periods, getting hotel rooms for two people at short notice for 2 weeks (or longer) will probably be non-trivial, both in terms of organisation and cost. |
Do you really get a bill for the helicopter if you don't have insurance?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| skithesteelstealtheski wrote: |
| LaForet wrote: |
Helicopter evacuation for us came out at £100/minute flight time, including airfield > piste, hovering 'round while the medic did an examination, piste>hospital and hospital>airfield. Plus the helo-doctor and paramedic, plus the pisteurs wh closed the piste and managed the landing site. Covered by the LV= winter policy.
When you say it's only £20 I'd just be sure that it does cover what you want it to and as you say, not just the secondary stuff. I'm thinking:
Helicopter Evacuation
On-piste accident staff
Medical specialists for the heli-evac
Medical translator for hospital discharge report & 'fit to fly' declaration
Flights home for injured
Flights out/home for a UK helper
Transfers airport/resort for injured and helper
Accommodation & subsistence for injured & helper if recuperation needed before repatriation
Transfers at home for helper and injured
It may be that your main policy covers this as part of the 'injury while on holiday' cover, irrespective of whether you're skiing or not, and the winter sport extensions only needs to cover secondary stuff like baggage and flight cancellation etc. But you need to be sure there aren't any gaps. For example, if you need to recover from injuries for a couple of weeks before you are declared Fit to Fly home (and indeed, are in a state to be able to), then you want the insurance to cover arranging suitable accommodation and the costs of a friend/family to fly out to be with you and help. In the peak periods, getting hotel rooms for two people at short notice for 2 weeks (or longer) will probably be non-trivial, both in terms of organisation and cost. |
Do you really get a bill for the helicopter if you don't have insurance? |
Why wouldn't you? Not all countries operate like the UK where air ambulance and mountain rescue are effectively charity/state funded?
It varies by country though I think. In France I think the PGHM is free, Austria and CH are private pay AFAIK. In certain places in the US you can subscribe to an air ambulance membership which might be pretty useful given cost of everything over there.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| skithesteelstealtheski wrote: |
| Do you really get a bill for the helicopter if you don't have insurance? |
Yes, in Switzerland anyway, from our experience. In fact, you get a bill for the heli-evac whether or not you have travel insurance. There's no dialogue with your insurer and the local services about direct payment. You have to pay everything not covered by your GHIC and then claim it back from your insurer. Alternatively, if the invoice arrives some time after the accident, your insurer may opt to pay direct, to avoid fraud, but you still have to forward the bill sent to you onwards to the insurer.
It's only if you take out the assurance offered when you buy the ski pass ("Avec assurance?") that you completely avoid having to deal with the heli-evac charges. And I say charges, because (in our case anyway) the helicopter invoice came separately to the invoices for the heli-medics and the pisteurs.
I think that some people have this idea that you wave your insurance certificate in front of the emergency services and they take that and talk to your insurer direct. But that's not the case. And if you think about it, it's often not practical anyway in the circumstances. Yes, the GHIC is really useful at A&E (make sure you actually have it on you, not back at the accommodation) as you can just wave it and the hospital administrator then has the details they need to cross-charge. But the GHIC won't cover heli-evac and in many cases, clinic charges at a resort, nor pharmacy medicines and certainly not the cost of having to extend your accommodation in order to recover, repatriation flights etc.
The requirement to contact your insurer ASAP isn't just for their convenience either. They'll want to see the Discharge Report from the hospital to make sure on your behalf that the hospital isn't just trying to throw you out prematurely. And to make sure that the Fit to Fly Certificate is going to be accepted by the airline - again something that benefits you. THis is why it's always useful for someone other than the injured to have contact details for their insurer, so they can get in contact while the injured is being processed and treated.
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| skithesteelstealtheski wrote: |
| ... Do you really get a bill for the helicopter if you don't have insurance? |
In BC back country evacuation, the last time I looked, it's the same as the UK. So you don't pay, in that scenario. In France my buddy who was heli-ed out from outside a resort wasn't charged. Helicopters cost a couple of grand for an hour's flying time for machine & pilot. In places like Whistler the hospital and the heli pad is "right there" so you're not going far whatever.
The OP was about "add ons". - In places like Whistler or Big White, your lift pass is refundable if you lose it, so no need to pay to "insure" that.
- Piste closure... I doubt they'll ever pay out on that, and if they did I doubt you'd feel "compensated".
- Ski loss... well check how much they pay out, but I just look after my gear and then it doesn't get lost.
=> I don't think you're missing anything.
As someone pointed out baggage as carried by airlines is covered by international convention, as are the costs consequential on airline delays including additional gear hire, food and hotel costs. Cash flight delay compensation was a specific EU additional benefit - that may have been lost with Brexit, or may be lost soon.
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You know it makes sense.
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"Is winter ski travel insurance worth it?"
If you don't have to claim on it, no.
If you have to claim on it, yes.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@phil_w, I think the issue the OP had was that when he selected winter sports cover it looked to him as though he was just paying for these add-ons that as you mention aren't that important. What he was missing is that in many cases selecting it also adds all of the winter sports to the list of activities they will pay out for if you injure yourself. I have only taken out 3 snow sports polices before and two of them were like this. You just got the add-ons as part of it being a winter sports policy.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
I think the issue the OP had was that when he selected winter sports cover it looked to him as though he was just paying for these add-ons that as you mention aren't that important. What he was missing is that in many cases selecting it also adds all of the winter sports to the list of activities they will pay out for if you injure yourself.
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I think @Glosterwolf is right - that's what I thought. But there's no substitute for actually reading the small print.......
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Having read through a number of policies ,I believe Glosterwolf is correct-opting for winter sports cover gives you the addons and also adds skiing (and other assorted winter sports)to the list of activities that would not otherwise be covered.
Thanks for everyone's input
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| skithesteelstealtheski wrote: |
| LaForet wrote: |
Helicopter evacuation for us came out at £100/minute flight time, including airfield > piste, hovering 'round while the medic did an examination, piste>hospital and hospital>airfield. Plus the helo-doctor and paramedic, plus the pisteurs wh closed the piste and managed the landing site. Covered by the LV= winter policy.
When you say it's only £20 I'd just be sure that it does cover what you want it to and as you say, not just the secondary stuff. I'm thinking:
Helicopter Evacuation
On-piste accident staff
Medical specialists for the heli-evac
Medical translator for hospital discharge report & 'fit to fly' declaration
Flights home for injured
Flights out/home for a UK helper
Transfers airport/resort for injured and helper
Accommodation & subsistence for injured & helper if recuperation needed before repatriation
Transfers at home for helper and injured
It may be that your main policy covers this as part of the 'injury while on holiday' cover, irrespective of whether you're skiing or not, and the winter sport extensions only needs to cover secondary stuff like baggage and flight cancellation etc. But you need to be sure there aren't any gaps. For example, if you need to recover from injuries for a couple of weeks before you are declared Fit to Fly home (and indeed, are in a state to be able to), then you want the insurance to cover arranging suitable accommodation and the costs of a friend/family to fly out to be with you and help. In the peak periods, getting hotel rooms for two people at short notice for 2 weeks (or longer) will probably be non-trivial, both in terms of organisation and cost. |
Do you really get a bill for the helicopter if you don't have insurance? |
Yes. We received a bill for €4800 for Mrs B's heli evacuation in Austria. The heli company have no idea whether the patient has insurance or not. They simply send out the bill.
Luckily Mrs B had Austrian Alpine Club cover at the time - which covered the heli.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Just a secondary point re the GHIC: what's important is the information printed on it - it's not a smart card, like a bank card. So it's always worth taking a smartphone photo' of it just in case you lose the card or leave it behind. All the medical administrator is interested in are the details on it and showing a photo' should be enough. And there's no harm in taking a printed copy as well, to add to your copies of your passport, Covid certificate, credit cards, boarding pass etc.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Some of the Snowheads in Alleghe, that Snowmageddon year, needed details of insurance they only had on their phones. But they had no signal.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Is winter ski travel insurance worth it? Absolutely.
Following an accident last March in Italy that I obviously never ever expected to experience, it covered:
Extra 6 days in our hotel;
private medical flight home;
ambulance from hotel to Turin airport;
private ambulance to UK hospital from BHX (where they’d arranged to hold a trauma bed for me);
flights & transfers to get my hubby home;
piste rescue;
Portion of unused lift passes for us both;
extra cat sitter fees.
GHIC covered helicopter off the mountain, ambulances, hospital consult with X-rays & CT.
Someone we know in insurance reckons this would have easily run into a couple of hundred thousand £’s.
I reckon an extra £20 or so is a bargain.
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| LaForet wrote: |
| We did get a personally-signed letter from the CEO of Téléverbier to my wife, saying how sorry he was to hear about her accident and hoping that it wouldn't put us off returning to the 4 Vallées. Which was nice. |
I was heli’ed off to Sion and got one of those personal letters too, many months after the event in 2016 - it is a nice touch by them. Never got one from Chamonix Mt Blanc when heli’ed off the Grands Montet. Insurance was good as gold both times.
I’ve not been back to Cham or Verbier since though 
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We've used our travel insurance twice. Both on ski holidays, but one was only travel related, as I took ill rather than had a ski accident. Hubby fractured a vertebra in his neck. No helicopter, but ambulance transfer to Grenoble, emergency surgery (this is free in France with GHIC), taxi back to our accommodation in Serre Chevalier for me, and repatriation after a week's hospital stay. Also covered my expenses to stay near the hospital once I'd packed up our belongings back in Serre Che as it was a 2 hour drive from our apartment, refunds of all of our ski passes, ski hire, son accompanying hubby home, new travel arrangements for me and son no 2, and cancellations costs for a trip we had booked for later in the season. It would also have refunded unused accommodation if we hadn't been staying in our own apartment. Only complaint was that 'ski pack' amount did not cover the actual costs involved. As I recall it was 20€ per day per person for ski and boot hire and ski passes. I felt justified in using our season passes at the end of the season after they were returned to us, as it only covered our days we didn't ski in January.
Any medical bills not covered by EHIC/GHIC were picked up by insurers, and were mainly the doctors fee, a scan in the hospital in Briancon, and the daily hospital charge. But it was definitely worth it.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I have yet to see an insurance with winter sports as an option where injuring yourself skiing wouldn't be excluded without it. There is a general exclusion for stuff they normally cover (so it is a one liner somewhere obvious/clear about it only being covered if you have winter sports extension).
I.E. 90+% of the extra £20 is injury insurance for skiing as an activity...
I wouldn't go skiing without insurance, but will note there are other ways to cover injury (carre neige on lift passes, Austrian Alpine Club (n.b. medical cover is low, if you rely in it IMHO you would be well worth paying for per-trip extended cover), probably other ways...
Plausibly an insurer might agree to cover some of it, but as pointed out with examples, you can easily knock up a few £10k...
Even if they agreed to supply any cover, Insurer could easily argue you have under insured, so knock of a %age based on how much extra you would have paid for winter cover... So (to use a quick example) post office cover for a week for me doubles if I add winter sports; So at best you might manage to convince an ombudsman/agent to make them pay out half...
http://travelinsurance1.postoffice.co.uk/Content/POMS/files/Documents/IPID/V11/PostOfficeIpidStandardcoverCOL.pdf is very standard paperwork and clearly excludes all cover for skiing without extension in nice big, clear text, explicitly separating it from other high risk activities (also not covered but in extended paperwork rather than IPID) because it is so common...
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As mentioned somewhere above, banks often give a great policy as a freebie for all year on some of their accounts.
Check if your bank does it.
My wife broke a leg a few years ago and everything was sorted and refunded.
We often take advantage of the local ski insurance on top of this, if its offered such as "carte neige" in France for not many €s that can be purchased with the lift pass. Its mainly to get you off the mountain to the clinic without any phaaf with documentation.
(It wont cover those extra seats on the plane and taxis home)
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FAQ
