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Hi,

Im trying to get travel insurance which covers off piste and/or back country for north america (canada). As its a really boring thing to be researching I thought I would start a post on the topic so we can share info about which company has the best policy.

I havnt done much research yet but will update this post with what I discover later. In the meantime, it would be really cool if you could share your experiences.

So far I think the three obvious issues are:

1) Cover, ie is it only for on piste (within permitted areas of the ski area boundary and only on groomed trails)
2) Quality of service (do they dick you around when you try and make a claim)
3) Duration (some policies only cover for maximum 6 months. I may need longer cover as I might stay in canada for 12 months).
4) I know i only said 3 issues, but come on, price has always got to be a consideration!

Any comments much appreciated!

Nay.

Ok, so I have done some research and here is what I have found out.

Issues to look out for:

(I hesitantly use the term skiing here to include snowboarding!)

Policies which mention 'skiing' do not seem to cover:
- Skiing outside of the December-March part of the season
- Ski acrobatics - I havnt found a good definition of this but can probably assume anything that involves a jump. Or does it just apply to spinning or inversion?
- Some policies offer compensation for ski area closure on bad days for pre-booked passes to cover costs of going to another mountain. I believe this applies to season pass holders.

Policies that do not specificly mention skiing/snowboarding may be better if you want cover for 'ski acrobatics' or for outside of the December - March months.

Check the excess as they tend to range a bit.

Policies

1 Cover: Has a good snow specific policy which offers compensation off piste riding as well as for bad weather closure.

State, NZI & WorldNomads: No mention about ski fields other than you must be within an authorised area. There may be other sneaky wordings to look out for such as 'intentioanlly endangering yourself'. World Nomads is the cheapest around, but their reputation isnt the best for paying out.

I am not sure if this forum gets much traffic, but here's hoping I can get some good advise within the next week as that is when I am buying insurance and flying to Canada!

Whitewater/Nelson or Big Red/Rossland? Thats another topic I suppose!

hey mate,
hope you've sorted something. if your still looking check http://global.ihi.com/
they do full worldwide 'hazardous sports' cover. A few extra bucks but deffo worth it, as the nz travel insurance companies will split if they find out you had to get heli'd out from the back country.
have a mean trip
DB