Winter sports cover year abroad

[Exhatt]

My daughter is going on a year abroad to the Alps as part of her degree. She hasn’t skied or anything before but might want to give it a try while she’s there. She has basic travel insurance through her home university which seems to include medical repatriation etc but I don’t think that covers winter sports. Does anyone have any pointers on where we can find just an add on? I looked at one comparison site but could only find quotes for full cover for the year, with the cheapest being over £800!
Thanks in advance 🙂

Which country is your daughter going to?

In the Alpine countries there is usually an "Alpine Club/Association" of some sort that offers an insurance policy to members - for example the Austrian Alpine Club includes insurance cover for accidents, mountain rescue, repatriation, third-party liability etc. for a very reasonable membership fee. UK residents can join the AAC even while resident in the UK for £48 a year if aged under 28. Other countries will have something similar - or if she is abroad at a university there might be a University Ski Club that has this type of membership. Local ski clubs in the Alps also have similar membership deals that include insurance.

The major question is whether these policies would cover repatriation to the UK. The AAC policy would provide repatriation cover if the trip abroad was for less than 8 weeks, but your daughter will presumably be in the other country for longer than that.

Your first place to contact should be the company providing the current insurance to see if they have an add-on for winter sports.

Other alternatives are a specialist broker such as MPI Brokers who have long-stay policies, gap-year policies etc. or perhaps a BIBA broker such as Firth and Scott. I have used both in the past for longer foreign trips, including while working ski seasons.

Thanks so much, that’s really helpful! She’ll be in France btw.

I’ll have a look at the insurance her home uni has given her to start with and see if we can get the cover added on. Good to know we’re unlikely to have to spend £800 on insurance if she’s only going to end up skiing once or twice!