UKC

Am spending this winter and possibly some of the summer in Italy. Am snowboarding both on and off piste and also climbing/mountaineering.

Looking for reccomendations for insurance? BMC seems to be the gold standard but expensive. Have heard AAC (Austrian alpine club) mentioned regularly and sounds good. FAC I belive you have to be living in France? Am about to look if CAI offers a policy.
Any others worth checking out?

Cheers
Kahti

In reply to Kahti:

AAI was the best £45 I've ever spent in my life - paid for a 2500 swiss franc helicopter rescue... that was each split 5 ways!

In reply to beardy mike:

AAI? All I get in a search is Airport Association of India?

In reply to Kahti:
AAI = CAI = Club Alpino Italiano. Very good insurance. Recommended.
Happy climbing.

In reply to Kahti:

the aac policy is a good call but read it carefully to ensure such a long time away from home is covered.

In reply to Kahti:

DOH! I meant aac! Austrian alpine club. Was a member of caf for a while but aac is cheaper and just as effective.

In reply to beardy mike:

Ach so … you meant the AAC. Also a very, very good insurance. As far as I know they insure also foreigners. Not like the BMC insurance for which I paid for many years and discovered not being insured as a foreigner (if one spells the policy). Happily I had never to claim. So check that.

In reply to beardy mike:

Cool looks like AAC is the way to go. Cheers for the replies!

In reply to Kahti:

Be careful with AAC, if you join the AAC(UK), you are only insured for a month outside the UK, and are required to show travel details to prove this. If you are resident in Val d'Aosta then I would advise looking at the CAI or going to the local Allianz and asking for sports insurance.

In reply to Andy Lagan:

Is that a month at a time, or a month per trip? I'm looking at a few fortnight-long trips this coming season so AAC + EHIC could work well for me...

In reply to Andy Lagan:

I think it may be 8 weeks at a time

Just checked my AAC documents and it states "The benefits under paragraph 2 above are provided for the first eight weeks of each and every journey abroad. The sums insured are valid per person and per journey abroad.", and further "For trips abroad longer than eight weeks, Europäische Reiseversicherung offers separate travel insurance."

I tend to have a brief trip home to see aged family half way through the winter anyway, thus giving 2x8 weeks cover (unless I have got this completely wrong during the last 2 years and have been lucky!)

In reply to HammondR:

Ah, ok, apologies, the last time i had AAC(UK) was 2014. I had an climbing accident and luckily could prove I'd been in the UK within the last month. If you live in the UK or regularly travel there then AAC is a great deal.

In reply to Andy Lagan:
It was 8 weeks medical cover, per trip, in 2014 and hasn't changed, but this 8 weeks limit is only the medical cover, the rescue side is unlimited.

In reply to Jim 1003:
Thanks for the extra info!
Does anyone have any experience of CAI insurance? Before I go translating the many pages on their website into English, does anyone know if you need an address in Italy to register?

Otherwise do you think a combination of AAC (for rescue) and an EHIC would be a workable combination? I'm now probably going to be spending most of the winter on piste doing BASI and then teaching, with just the occasional climbing or touring adventure at the weekends. How much will EHIC soak up if say, I break a wrist on piste?

Sorry if i seem a bit dumb with all of this. Only country in Europe outside the UK I've spent a winter in is Iceland, who have a similar mountain rescue service to our own, and when I sprained a tendon there and had to see a doctor it was covered by EHIC.

In reply to Kahti:

I'm a great fan of EHIC. You need to find out how it works in Italy, but his summer I broke my collar bone in France. In France EHIC immediately pays 80% of the medical costs, and you have to pay 20%. Your medical insurance (if you have it) will reimburse the 20%.

I spent two nights in hospital in Bourg St Maurice, and had a four hour operation of very high quality. I had to pay 72 euros.

In reply to John2:

See this post from another thread on the same topic,



jamiegardiner:

My friend and I had an accident in Chamonix this summer, 500 foot fall from the Cosmiques arete.

Helicopter rescue to hospital in Sallanches

I broke my wrist and had surgery that day, also half a dozen broken ribs and 20 stitches in my leg, 3 days in hospital and then a new flight home as I had missed mine.

He broke three bones in his back and an ankle, again surgery in France, a week in hospital then air ambulance home with doctor and nurse to accompany him.

We both had EH1C and AAC, worked perfectly and no quibble about any of the costs, EH1C picked up 90% and insurance needed for the other 10%.

Just make sure your EH1C hasn't expired, his had and it caused a fair bit of extra paperwork but it was sorted in the end.