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Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance 2024

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The most un-fun part of an expedition – trying to find the right travel insurance policy to cover trekking and/or mountaineering. Here’s a 2024 summary of what to look for and what we found.

If you’re from the UK, Europe or USA there are plenty of options. For Australians, if you so much as think about using a rope then the options dry up fast. Does having the ‘7th Summit’ not count for anything?!

Our focus is on insurance for high altitude and also for the use of mountaineering equipment when needed (helmet, crampons, ice axe, ropes, harness etc). We’ve also looked at Covid insurance.

This article includes general information about travel insurance for all trekkers and mountaineers regardless of where you live. We have a separate article which details the options for Aussies. We reviewed over 45 providers encompassing insurance companies, rescue specialists, alpine clubs, climbing clubs, recommendations from expedition companies, aggregator & comparison websites, blogposts, as well as talking to other trekkers and mountaineers.

Disclaimer: This is general information based on our research. As always, you should read the latest policy fine print and online reviews, and consider your own personal requirements. While we display Google Ads on this page, we are not using affiliate links in the content of this article and therefore do not earn commission from any insurance companies that we mention.

In this post

Travel Insurance in 2024

Most travel insurers now include some form of Covid cover – mostly for overseas medical expenses if you get Covid while travelling. So we’re no longer including this in our analysis. If it’s important to you then make sure you read the policy fineprint.

  • You can also read our post on Covid insurance and tips for minimising disruption to your expedition.
  • But check the rules as they can be unreasonable e.g. in 2023 we heard of a travel insurer who required a trekker to have a Covid PCR test before helicopter evacuation could be arranged. But of course it’s impossible to get a PCR test when you’re in a remote area!

There are new travel and adventure insurance providers popping up all the time. so it’s always worth a quick search to see what’s new. Many are just different brands who use the same underwriters. In these cases the policies are largely the same, with perhaps a few tweaks depending on the pricing or the type of travel that they specialise in.

What to Consider when Searching for Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance

  1. Decide what type of cover you need e.g. evacuation (usually from a known location), medical expenses, general travel insurance (cancellation, trip curtailment, delays, lost luggage etc), Covid, search and rescue (from an unknown location – not offered by all insurers) etc
  2. Create a shortlist of providers based on your minimum requirements e.g. highest altitude, type of activity (trekking, use of mountaineering equipment etc), destination country and travel advisory level (and if it changes – WorldNomads is the only policy we’ve found so far that specifically calls out cover for this … not to say that others exclude it though). Length of trip is also important – some policies have a limit of 30 days per trip.
  3. Check other important factors e.g. pre-existing medical conditions, your eligibility (age, country of residence), risk of weather delaying internal flights, risk of natural disasters e.g. avalanches causing injury or landslides causing delays on your drive to/from trailhead, can you get a refund if your trip doesn’t proceed and you don’t need the policy any more? Note: If you’re working in a professional capacity, such as guiding, then you may not be eligible for some policies.
  4. Weigh up cost vs risk
    • Cost of the insurance policy and excess
    • Risk
      • what could happen (“events”) and how likely e.g. injury, illness, bad weather, natural disasters etc
      • what you could lose (“cover” you need) e.g.
        • cost of expedition, flights, gear
        • extra costs you could incur e.g. search, rescue, medical & repatriation, extra accommodation, flight changes
  5. Read the fine print of the policy before you purchase it. If needed, contact the insurer to get clarification (in writing) of what you’ll be covered for. Especially check for
    • General exclusions
    • Definitions of words with special meaning

Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance

There are 3 main sources of insurance for trekking and mountaineering which we’ll cover in this section – remote rescue specialists, alpine clubs and travel insurers. You may need to use a combination to get all the cover you need. We’ve also added some other aspects which are worth being aware of too.

Check with your expedition company first

If you’re going with a trekking or mountaineering expedition company then check their website or ask their advice. They often have requirements and recommendations for insurance. In some cases they may provide a referral which can be useful e.g. in the case of Ripcord, to become eligible to buy their travel insurance add-on.

Partnerships we know of as at 2024:

Remote Rescue Specialists

These companies specialise in rescue/evacuation, which is a membership service rather than insurance. You can join as a short-term or longer term member. Depending on your circumstances you may be eligible to purchase their optional add-ons of medical expenses and travel insurance.

More information on Global Rescue and Ripcord:

Rescue/Evacuation Service

  • No limit on altitude, and allows for mountaineering
  • Polar regions are not covered unless you buy an upgrade
  • Ripcord also includes Search whereas Global Rescue will only rescue you from a known location
  • Usually require you to have 2-way sat comms e.g. Garmin inReach .. but check the rules of your destination country in case there are restrictions on these devices.

Optional Insurance Add-ons

Insurance to cover medical expenses, cancellation, luggage etc. However you aren’t necessarily eligible

  • Global Rescue partner with IMG Signature Travel Insurance. It seems to be available for most nationalities
  • Ripcord have options to add-ons for medical expenses and also additional travel insurance. If you’re a non-US resident you can’t access this online unless you have an offer coupon. You need to contact them to discuss, or if you’re travelling with one of their expedition partners then you may be able to get a referral.
    • If you’re a member of the American Alpine Club and buy this insurance add-on, you can get 10% off the cost of the Ripcord rescue/evacuation membership

What to Check

Depending on your requirements you may want to clarify a few grey areas with them, which may come down to their sole discretion e.g.

  • COVID – their cover for Covid is a bit unclear i.e. Global Rescue website FAQs say they will rescue you if you test positive yet the policy wording says no contagious disease. Ripcord website says Covid is treated like any other illness for travel insurance, but it’s not 100% clear about rescue
  • Hospitalisation – Global Rescue FAQ says that they’ll rescue you even if you don’t need hospitalisation, however their policy specifically says that they’ll evacuate for injury/illness which is life-threatening and/or requires hospitalisation. Ripcord have the hospitalisation clause too.
  • Travel advisory level (for your destination country) – it’s not very clear as to which advisory levels they include or exclude

Alpine Clubs

Some of the Alpine Clubs around the world offer a limited amount of rescue and medical expenses (not general travel insurance) for their members while participating in mountain-related activities. Other clubs are focussed more on providing access to ski lodges and mountain huts.

Of those offering rescue/medical, some only allow membership from within their region e.g.

Others are open to international membership e.g.

  • Austrian Alpine Club (in German) which includes sections for
  • Austrian Alpine Club (UK Branch) – in English
    • Search and Rescue from off-road terrain including medical and repatriation
    • Up to 6000m (with the extension >6000m only available to EU residents)
    • Excludes Polar regions and Greenland
  • American Alpine Club
    • Rescue (not search), medical and repatriation – depending on membership level. Designed for any outdoor activity.
    • No altitude limit (as far as we can see)
    • Excludes Polar regions unless you purchase the Polar Upgrade
    • They have a variety of membership options with different levels of cover.
    • Note that for more comprehensive coverage, they recommend that you buy a full membership with Ripcord, which you can get with a discount if you also buy their travel insurance. (They used to partner with Global Rescue but have switched)
  • New Zealand Alpine Club – offer insurance as follows:
    • New Zealanders travelling anywhere. Polar regions are assessed on a case by case basis. Various activities covered including trekking to 6000m and mountaineering to 7000m depending on the level of cover you choose.
    • Australians travelling to New Zealand

Travel Insurers

These companies provide general travel insurance but are usually limited in the adventure activities and altitudes they cover. You often need to buy the higher level plans or adventure optional add-ons to get the cover you need. They are:

  • Likely to include evacuation, medical expenses, cancellation, delays, lost luggage etc
  • Unlikely to include cover for mountaineering activities
  • Unlikely to include Search and Rescue 

It’s sometimes worth checking with your airline or health insurance fund in case they offer travel insurance through them for a better price.

We’ve done a detailed review of options for Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance for Australians here.

For residents of other countries you’ve probably got many more options which you’ll need to research yourself. Here are some we are aware of:

UK: TrueTraveller, Campbell Irvine, BattleFace, SnowCard, Dogtag, Adventures, SportsCoverDirect

USA: TripAssure, Travel Guard, Squaremouth (aggregator)

Canada: TuGo

International:

  • WorldNomads (although may not be selling in all regions yet due to Covid)
  • IMG Global (no options for Australians unless you go via Global Rescue)
  • WorldTrips (formerly HCC Atlas – excludes Australians and Canadians)
  • Global Underwriters for travel to USA (excludes Australians)
  • Journeyman (via Campbell Irvine) for international residents
  • WorldWideInsurance (for UK residents and some options for international)
  • ColumbusDirect (not selling to Australian region)
  • Clements (no options for Australians)
  • (IHI/Bupa are no longer selling travel insurance)

For more information here’s another good article about Travel, Rescue and Medical Evacuation Insurance.

Reciprocal Health Care Agreements and NZ ACC

Depending on the country you’re travelling to, you may have access to these health care services. However you’d still need travel insurance to cover all other situations.

Reciprocal Health Care e.g.

  • New Zealand has reciprocal health care agreements with Australia and U.K. For Australians visiting NZ, ensure you take your Medicare card with you.
  • Australia has agreements with 11 different countries
  • United Kingdom also has a list of agreements

NZ Accident Compensation

  • If you’re travelling to New Zealand, there is also the unique ACC no fault scheme which provides health care if you have an accident. You may or may not have to pay part of your treatment costs.

Insurance Aggregators/Comparison Websites

They can be useful as a general overview or they can just be plain annoying if they don’t give you a full set of options because they’re biased by the commissions they’re paid.

Some have useful blogposts such as these (Aussie-based, but still some useful info for everyone)

Online Reviews

All insurance companies seem to have good/bad reviews, and a lot come down to

  • How many questions you need to ask them before deciding to buy the policy and their quality/timeliness of response (we’ve not had issues here, but haven’t needed to ask much)
  • Claiming – depends on how diligent you are in your claim. Again we’ve had good experiences with a few companies which others have complained about.

Post Covid, many insurance companies have staff shortages or other issues which have impacted their customer service (e.g. response time for claims or queries).

Nepal Helicopter Rescue Scams

If trekking or mountaineering in Nepal, be aware of some of the tricky tactics that have been used in the past. Hopefully some of the operators have cleaned up their act since then. In 2018 the trekking world was abuzz with various scams which you can read about here:

Tips for Making a Travel Insurance Claim

  1. Know and follow the rules of the policy (although some can be unreasonable e.g. requiring a PCR test in a remote area) e.g.
    • by knowing the correct insurance emergency number to contact for medevac. Your expedition company usually asks for your policy details so that they can assist with this
    • They may require that you have 2-way comms, such as a sat phone … but check the rules of your destination country in case there are restrictions on these devices.
  2. Make every effort to reduce extra costs and document how you did this in your claim e.g.
    • upfront
      • buy flexible flights
      • getting Covid vaccinations and being Covid-safe
    • if an event occurs
      • try to move flights and accommodation without penalty
      • or get a refund from airline or expedition company
  3. Get all the supporting documentation if something goes wrong
    • e.g. letter from hospital, expedition company, airline etc
    • note: insurers seem to want increasingly more and more information – so ensure you get all the evidence you can to support your claim
  4. Make your claim easy to read and in the correct format e.g.
    • Submit the claim in the required format e.g. an online or pdf form as specified on the insurer’s website
    • Provide all information they ask for, in a logical order
    • Refer to the specific section/wording in the policy that you’re claiming for
    • Attach all necessary documents
    • Beware – if they have to request more information from you, or the necessary forms etc, then the clock may restart for the claim response time (the promised turnaround time of 10 days, 30 days etc to assess and respond to your claim)
Helicopter Rescue - Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance

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