200,000 Brits ski without insurance

Really?

have you read this....do not understand some people....

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2241449/Id-face-day-intense-pain-years-paying-One-skier-big-rescue-limps-mountain.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Top post SS. You might also post it on Snowheads?

The article gives some good practical examples of what it might cost, but had it included an American example, the costs would have been sky high.

I was surprised at the helicopter price of £2500.
Sound advice about keeping the insurance company phone number on your mobile, or at least in your wallet, should you need to borrow a mobile.

I would add that everyone should also keep the phone number of the local lift company on their mobile ~ they can call out the mountain rescue.

Also, keep the phome number of your accomodation on your mobile/wallet. If there is an accident, and all else fails, the hotel owner can do the necessary.

Ski safely.

It is unbelievable the way some people will ski without insurance :shock:

DaveMac,
If you're in Europe I think it may be better to phone the universal emergency number of 112, because it will find you a network and fix your position for the emergency services. And I think they pass it on to the local service then, in any case. Somewhere like the 3 Valleys can be very awkward otherwise because they have different emergency numbers for each valley.

Yes, Ali, I have used 112 several times. On two occasions, there were difficulties in explaining our exact location. (Both on unnamed off-piste runs.) Hence, my first preference for a local number,and then the accomodation, or at least a village phone number.

I have come across late afternoon accidents, twice when the lifts were closed/about to close. The ski patrol had been and gone. The guy in the pub phoned the lift owners house.

It is about keeping a number of options. Good reminder of 112, though.

I've also been in groups where some people didn't carry their wallets! They assumed that they'd never get separated from their group/partner. Didn't think what would happen if they did, and then how they could be identified if they were unconscious.
After being self-righteous, I realised that I wasn't carrying anything that (a) identified my blood group and medicine allergies or (b) showed where I was staying and who to contact in an emergency.
After talking about this to my sons, it also struck them that on their Lads Trip, no one had details of who to contact back home, insurance etc. - so if any of them were unconscious and/or hospitalised, they wouldn't know who to call.
All this is fairly easy to get together before you go, and I now print out a small form for everyone to complete ahead of the trip. Then give them a small form for their wallets with the accommodation details, contact, and blank for name, blood group, allergies etc.

I think we must be so desensitised to dangers & risks because of the artificial world of theme-parks and the H&S culture we live in.

We then put on a 'holiday head' mentality and forget that we really are in a mountain with all that nature can throw at us.

Good calls on the telephone numbers and pocket information we should be carrying. :thumbup:

A friend of mine had a big accident in Obergurgl a few years ago, I can't remember the final costs of her treatment and repatriation, but I do remember it being eye watering.

Why oh why do people not get the insurance?? It's a fraction of the costs that could be incurred if you were in a serious, or even not-so-serious accident!!

Plus 1 to carrying EHIC, Insurance policy number and phone number, contact no of fellow traveller/partner and a list of medications currently taken etc.
I cannot understand the mentality of people who ski without insurance. Touch wood I have never had to make a claim for myself but I dread to think what it would have cost us in treatment without EHIC/insurance last year when my other half broke his T6 vertebrate snowboarding.