Don’t be left high and dry with poor ski cover

With little or no snow in many of Europe’s top winter sports locations, Find.co.uk, one of the UK’s leading consumer finance portals, urges skiers to check their winter sports policies for eventualities such as piste closure due to lack of snow and avalanches disrupting travel arrangements.

Analysis by Find.co.uk shows a small minority of winter sports policies don’t cover piste closure and a larger number don’t pay out for travel delays due to avalanches.

Around 16 policies do not pay anything for piste closure. However some will pay as much as £600, with four policies (Extrasure Optimum, M& S, Greenbee and Argos) paying £50 a day and nearly six in 10 shelling out only £20 per day.

If you can travel to an alternative resort where you can ski, you may be able to claim travel expenses instead. However again 36 policies don’t offer this cover and the rest pay between £10 and £50 a day with half offering just £20 a day.

The total you can claim for piste closure or travel to another resort is limited to between £100 and £600, with most polices capped at £200.

If an avalanche delays departure to or from your resort, nearly three in four policies will pay compensation, with around one in five paying £200, 27 shelling out £500 and Churchill offering a whopping £1,000.

If you have not bought a specialist winter sports policy and are going skiing you will have to buy winter sports cover as an add-on. If that is the case you can expect to pay up to the same again as you have already paid for your travel insurance for the privilege.

Kate Marsden, Marketing Director of Find.co.uk says: “When selecting a travel policy to cover winter sports, remember that while personal liability, medical expenses and ski equipment cover are obviously important, in this age of global warming, it’s worth checking you have realistic cover for piste closure and travel to an alternative location.”