UKC

Has anyone taken out travel insurance for Elbrus or any other area with FCO warnings recently?
Looking for a company with good cost/benefit ratio that is accepted by russian authorities for the Visa, I'll be in Russia for 15 days in total.

In reply to Maexchen:

Few UK travel insurers will insure you for Elbrus, but the BMC will:
https://www.thebmc.co.uk/insurance?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItvb92Jr00wIVI7HtCh2kiQ...

In reply to Tom Briggs:

Are you sure Tom?

In reply to Offwidth:

The BMC do, yes and have done the past 4 years since we've been back on the mountain with groups. Snowcard, Dogtag do not.

FO advice for the Elbrus region hasn't really changed in a long time.

In reply to Maexchen:

BMC Alpine & Ski insurance should be fine. I've used that cover for a trip to Elbrus in June after contacting them to question whether it covered Elbrus specifically.

In reply to Tom Briggs:

Cheers... I knew people who had to go with AAC but that was more than 4 years ago. The underwriters at the time couldn't insure for areas where FO advice was don't travel. When we were looking at insurance for Sinai climbing two years ago FO advice was travel not advised unless essential so we were OK with the BMC but we had assumed BMC insurance was still affected if the situation changed (BMC is our preference, as service and support tops cost for us). I'd be interested to know how they got round the problems on FO advice.

In reply to Offwidth:

It's "all but essential" travel for the Elbrus region. I don't think they will insure anywhere where the advice is against "all travel".

We had a meeting at the FCO last year where they seemed to suggest they were going to make advice more narrative and do away with the "all but essential" advice. I'm not sure it will be any more helpful.

In reply to Tom Briggs:

Elbrus was no travel for a while.

Sorry, I was not 100% clear on wording in my original post. The FCO warning is indeed "Advise against all but essential travel" (amber) and not "Advise against all Travel" (red).

I have contacted the BMC who have confirmed that the Alpine&Ski Policy includes Elbrus. However in the end I went with a Policy from Campbell Irvine (the BMC insurance was cheaper but I would have needed to buy membership as well) which was pretty similar.
(just in case someone else needs to know: cost is about £80 for 16 days)