UKC

Hello. Anyone have recommendations of expedition insurance for 6000M+ (6100M-ish) peaks in India? Thanks in advance.

In reply to robertmichaeladams:

https://www.globalrescue.com/

In reply to robertmichaeladams:

Stick with BMC alpine/expedition insurance. The underwriting is black and white as far as mountaineering is concerned and they have the reputation for always paying out. If India is anything like Pakistan then there won't be any helicopter coming for you until insurance red tape has been sorted out so it pays to have an insurance company you can trust 100%.

The application for the expedition insurance is quite long-winded but it's worth it. I had a friend went missing on a mountain in Pakistan a few years ago and BMC efficiently paid for all expenses relating to S+R without problem.

In reply to Mr. Lee: Agreed and as its only the Alpine the OP needs its not too bad £ wise. You can cut costs but when shit happens its good to have it sorted fairly painlessly

In reply to robertmichaeladams: guides use Rothwell and Towell

In reply to robertmichaeladams:

In my experience of BMC insurance (which is everyday stuff like missed connections due to flight delays etc) they are not reliable about paying out.

Also there are important ways in which the underwriting is more clear for Global Rescue - for instance Global Rescue do not care what the current British FCO opinion of the country you are visiting is!

In reply to robertmichaeladams: Thanks all for your responses, some extra places to look there. If there is anyone else with additional thoughts, keen to hear them as going to be working through this for the next couple of weeks. Ta.

In reply to robertmichaeladams:

Global Rescue is one of the only remotely viable options at the moment, but realise that to effect a body recovery / major rescue they may not act until they've rung your home and had a lien put on your house, and maybe on your parents' house etc. I'm not joking - this happened a couple of years ago.

IHI, while no longer covering climbing and polar expeditions, will, in fact, consider trips on a case-by-case basis, depending on exactly what you are doing. If the other options are unsuitable, it would be worth emailing them. When they *did* cover expeditions, they were very good.

There's enough opinions on here already about BMC insurance, only you can decide that.

In the particular case of India, you may want to weight up the reality of any kind of rescue against the price paid to, theoretically, cover it. You can't pay for what doesn't exist. Sherpa teams in Nepal and army helos in Pakistan are proven options. What are you expecting in India?

In reply to Damo:

Could you elaborate on this?

In reply to JdotP:

Not really, sorry, not without divulging sensitive info. If I described the location/situation it would become obvious who it was.

They rang his wife, then his parents, who agreed to liens on both houses, before initiating a "rescue" / body recovery on the Nepal / Tibet border. Possibly it was to do with the particular situation, but regardless I found it unpleasant, though to be honest I was not totally surprised.

In reply to Damo:

Interesting - their website definitely claims that they will fly you home for free.

In reply to robertmichaeladams: Hi Everyone, new to the forum and a little late to this particular party. I work for Global Rescue and I'd be happy to answer any specific questions that people have regarding the service and how it relates to climbers. In relation to this specific thread, we would never take a 'liens' on someones house. However, for us to cover the costs of a medical evacuation the member needs to be ill or injured to the extent that they require in-patient hospitalization. This decision is determined by our in-house medical teams. We will never turn down an evacuation but there are cases when someone requests an evacuation but does not meet this trigger, in that case we may ask for a member's credit card. This is obviously a difficult thing to do but unfortunately there are cases where people simply want off the mountain and use Global Rescue (or any other evacuation membership or insurance) to cover these costs.

Feel free to contact me directly at memberservices@globalrescue.com or +1-617-459-4200.

Regards,

Sam Highley