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Your experience of Direct Travel travel insurance with Winter Sports cover
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

I'm looking to purchase travel insurance for an off-piste ski trip to Chamonix. I will be spending most of my time with a qualified high mountain guide, but will also spend a small proportion of my time skiing solo/with friends.

I have usually gone with Snowcard or Dogtag insurance, but the Direct Travel policy appears to be much more reasonably priced, while offering off piste cover, even without a guide. Here's their exact policy wording:

Quote:
What winter sports activities do you cover?

Bigfoot skiing, cat skiing or boarding, cross country skiing, curling, glacier skiing*, glacier walking (up to 4,000 metres), heli-skiing*, ice climbing*, ice curling, ice diving, ice hockey*, ice skating, kite skiing*, kite snowboarding*, langlauf, mono skiing, off piste skiing or snowboarding (except in areas considered to be unsafe by local resort management), skiing, ski/snow biking, ski/snow blading, ski randonee*, ski touring, ski-dooing*, sledging/sleighing, snowboarding, snow mobiling*, speed skating and tobogganing.

but excluding:

ski acrobatics, ski flying, skiing against local authority warning or advice, ski-stunting, ski jumping, ski mountaineering, or the use of bob sleighs, luges, bungees or skeletons;

* Cover for these winter sports may require you to pay an additional premium over and above the normal winter sports premium. In some cases, your excess under section B1 (Medical and other expenses outside of the United Kingdom) will be increased to £250, and there will be no cover provided under section G (Personal accident) and section H (Personal liability) whilst taking part in the activity.

If you are interested in any activities not listed above, please contact us


I wasn't entirely sure what is meant by "except in areas considered to be unsafe by local resort management". After all, all forms of skiing carry an element of risk, especially off piste, thus are inherently unsafe. Resort management won't typically prohibit, but will almost always warn against the dangers associated with skiing off piste, regardless of conditions. Does this warrant the activity as "unsafe"? I emailed Direct Travel to find out more, but they got back to me today with a rather vague reply:

Quote:
Cover is provided on our policies for off-piste skiing with/without a guide providing you are not skiing off-piste in an area considered unsafe by local resort management (i.e. signs up advising against skiing in a particular area).


...so, not really much help here either.

Has anyone actually dealt with/claimed through Direct Travel in regard to an off piste incident? If so, what was your experience of this? Were they reasonable, or did they hide behind a myriad of legal clauses?

Thanks!
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