Off piste insurance (caveats and get out clauses)

There is rising evidence that insurance companies are revising their underwriting terms in relation to the type of off-piste risk that they will and will not cover. We have two sources of evidence

1. Discussions are live in a number of forum pages that are cause for alarm.
2. HAT is working with the piste patrol in Val d'Isere and the Foreign Office on helping skiers be adequately insured and prepared.  We have found out that the piste patrol in Val d'Isere are increasingly concerned about insurance companies refusing to pay for off piste rescue.  (They have a list!)

Click here for the forum post links
J2ski.com
J 2 ski.com 2
Snowheads
Snowheads 2

Snowheads
We do not agree with all of the comments (especially where it relates to skiing without equipment or skiing alone) but the dicussions are illuminating.
At this stage we are still looking into the implications for off piste skiers and boarders.  But for the moment we can make the following observations

• Skiing off-piste without beeper, shovel and probe (whole party) is considered negligent by some companies and most piste patrol
• There is frequently a general get out clause that you must respect the safety advice and avalanche warnings from the local authorities.  It sounds terribly reasonable and we would recommend you do exactly that.  However in the hands of an insurance claim, this can be a grey area that we will do some more research on what it means.

Our investigation will cover the extent of cover provided by the Carre neige and Carte neige offered by the lift company.  We will also look at the big insurers.  SkiClub, Snowcard, Dog Tag, Direct Travel and the BMC.
 
Reading the comments, we would advocate you speak to the insurers yourselves when you take out cover about any exclusions for avalanche risk.  What matters is not the policy of the organisation who sell you the insurance but the attitude of the underwriters.  The main underwriters seem to be Fortis and Mondial.