Evacuation by helicopter: How much?

A snowHead

@chocksaway, "I would disagree with some of the comments presented above on France."

And I thought it was only me Toofy Grin

"@archers, I am not sure that is generally true. I am fairly sure that although Alpe d'Huez, I think jointly with Les Deux Alpes, operate a rescue / emergency helicopter you / your insurers will be charged for the use of it. Generally they only recover you to a meeting place with an ambulance and onward "travel" is in that, which you / your insurers will also have to pay for. Having said that I did have a scale of charges somewhere which I will try to dig out, and the helicopter charge, although like a sledge recovery was dependent on which zone you had the accident in, was in the hundreds, not thousands. I think there are also differences as to whether you are within the resort boundaries, whether you are recovered by the piste security sevice or by the emergency services (in which case I think it is free but I do not truly know)."

A snowHead

To add some recent actual rescue costs to this discussion; I was sledged off La Plagne March 2023, down to bottom of piste, then transferred to hospital in Bourg by ambulance. Cost was 760 EUR, picked up by and paid by Carre Neige, after a simple online process.

Same week at Le Gets, March 2023, a friend was sledged across piste to flat area [760 Eur], then helicopter to hospital [2500 Eur], all paid by CN. Never ski in France without it! If you do the Ski a la Carte, pay-as-you-ski lift pass, make sure you tick the insurance box, 17 EUR gives annual CN cover.

Solden in Austria do the same sort of thing as Carre Niege, but it is hidden away deep on their web site. January 2023 it cost 5 EUR a day from the ticket office. Tour company and reps never mentioned it, not sure if any other Brits in hotel had it. Uninsured rescue costs in Austria are cheaper than France, about half, but still a big money shock.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

My wife's heli-evac in the Quatre Vallées three years ago cost exactly £100/minute.

That's total flight time from the airport, hovering over the site, landing a medic to do an assessment; taking off and hovering for a while; landing again; loading her into the helicopter; flight to the hospital; land, transfer and take off again; and flight back to the airport.

On top of that you'll be charged for the pisteurs closing off the piste and managing the landings; the medic; and medical assistant. In Switzerland there's a flat fee for accessing the health system not covered by your GHIC. And discharge medicines are also often extra.

Most of this would be covered by the assurance you can buy with the ski pass. Which at CHF 5.00/day in Switzerland, seems a bargain. It's definitely worth having your GHIC on you (not back at the hotel/apartment) as this usually streamlines the A&E admissions process with the hospital administrators. Note that in her case, the accident was on-piste and very prosaic - she just tripped over her skis after coming to a halt at the side - but the pisteurs deemed her injuries might be too serious to use the ski-stretcher and called the heli-evac immediately. After that, the £100/minute clock started ticking .....

Definitiely everyone should have everything they need with them, as there was no room in the helicopter for passengers. So the patient will arrive by themselves and have to manage the admissions alone. It usually takes a while for anyone else to get off the slpes, back to their accommodation, change and drive/taxi to wherever the hospital is. Which can take a while.

A good insurance policy should have provision for someone coming/staying out to accompany the patient home. This is in the situation where they need a bit of time to recover for travel and everyone else has had to catch their flights home. If no one can stay, then someone will need to travel out to help. You may need to extend the accommodation, or find new accomodation at short notice, which won't be cheap.

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c.8 years thread revival, impressive.

Is there a similar scheme in St Anton? Never bought it but just relied on Snowcard and bank winter sports insurance but if cheap worth buying (if there is such a thing) those Wucher whirlygiggs ain't cheap.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Markymark29, I just looked St Anton up the other day. There's a thing called the Arlberg Safety Card that looks to do about the same job as CN. 15 euros for a week, from the lift pass office.

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@Shakira, Ah cool, i'll look at that - for the price of 2 beers might be a good buy! Thanks

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It is (was?) also possible to join the UK section of the Austrian Alpine club or sponsor the Bergrettung (mountain rescue) for €32 per year. I sponsor Bergrettung it covers my wife too, not sure but maybe it covers kids as well.

After all it is free

In 2016 it cost me just under 6,000 Euros, airlifted from Hintertux to the general hospital in Schwaz, a flight of about 32km plus whatever it took to get to me. Included attendance by a Dr and a morphine shot. My insurance company at the time (DogTag through BASI) paid in full and settled the bill directly with the heli company. Claim process was fairly straightforward, and I was mightily glad I had that cover.

@Shakira, I think you will find that doesnt cover the costs for any off piste (or off ski route) rescue, though might be wrong. In the Arlberg they seem to rely on heli evacuation even from the pistes, I have never fancied being dangled on 20m of rope 100s of metres in the air for the trip down to the clinic in the valley! Far better to join the Alpenverein (Austrian Alpine Club in the UK) which gives it members worldwide rescue insurance which covers the costs wherever you have to be picked up from with or without a guide, you do need to make other arrangements for medical cover as the cover included is really only a top up.

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Blows me away how much it costs for a heli rescue in Europe.

It’s no charge here in Nz regardless of in bounds or out of bounds. No need for insurance. Just push the button on the inreach and they will come and get you.

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@Shakira, Not sure about Carre Neige as long time since I skied in France. I would assume similar schemes exist in Switzerland and Italy. Certainly for anyone who sticks to the pistes & ski routes in the Arlberg, the safety card plus travel insurance will cover you. One of the safety card, Alpenverein or Bergrettung cards will save grief as the heli folk should bill them direct rather than you having pay and reclaim money from your insurer

I had a heli rescue by air Zermatt in April 2017. I cracked shoulder in 5 places and snapped my humerus in my upper arm. It cost me £1800 for a 10 minute flight down to Zermatt to have the damage x rayed at the medical centre. I then had to get a taxi down to Visp for a four night stay in Visp Hospital to have it all plated a screwed back together. I had to pay up front on my credit card for the heli rescue, the X ray at the medical centre and my 1 hour taxi ride down to Visp. My hospital treatment was covered by my EHIC card, I merely showed this to the hospital receptionist in the A and E dept. All costs were paid out by my Nat West travel Insurance some 6 weeks later after providing them with receipts. I also had to rearrange our Easy Jet flight back home and the additional costs were also covered. In summary, expensive when it goes tits up for you.

You know it makes sense.

I had a heli rescue by air Zermatt in April 2017. I cracked shoulder in 5 places and snapped my humerus in my upper arm. It cost me £1800 for a 10 minute flight down to Zermatt to have the damage x rayed at the medical centre. I then had to get a taxi down to Visp for a four night stay in Visp Hospital to have it all plated a screwed back together. I had to pay up front on my credit card for the heli rescue, the X ray at the medical centre and my 1 hour taxi ride down to Visp. My hospital treatment was covered by my EHIC card, I merely showed this to the hospital receptionist in the A and E dept. All costs were paid out by my Nat West travel Insurance some 6 weeks later after providing them with receipts. I also had to rearrange our Easy Jet flight back home and the additional costs were also covered. In summary, expensive when it goes tits up for you.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Air Glaciers (Sion ) do a recovery card/insurance, all the Swiss friends use it.
I have a vague recollection of being told that they will recover a stranded cow from up on the ALP!

A snowHead

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I'm not sure you can recover "consequential loss" damages in the UK either except in specific circumstances which wouldn't apply in your example. I may have misunderstood, in which case I'm eager to learn better. I'm not yet convinced NZ is different from UK in this at all. Rescue here is also free.

The US also has "punitive damages" I believe, which is a different deal again. And of course bog standard damages are likely more impressive there as they don't have an NHS etc.

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@Shakira, @munich_irish, Thanks for the heads up re alpenverein club, will look into this.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Interestingly, my mate and his daughter got winched off the Via Ferrata in Vaujany near Alp d Huez by helicopter back in August.
The daughter lost it on the rope bridges and my mate couldn’t shift her.
After a short heli ride they were dropped off up by the tennis courts. They were never charged a penny.

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@Duck, That’s because rescue in France is free when outside an area of lift served ski area. So if you are touring in the back country it should be free.

After all it is free

Ah, thanks @chocksaway didn’t know that.

easy fix: Pay a minimum of about 35€ to Vorarlberg Mountain Rescue (Bergrettung) and your family is covered for a year. No formalities at all. Just a money transfer.

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It’s a year or two out of date but this link gives you a clue:

https://www.mairie-tignes.fr/cms_viewFile.php?idtf=36532&path=Tarifs-secours-2021-GB.pdf

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You know it makes sense.

Rega membership in CH is worth it

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

When people talk about free helicopter recovery, are those services run by volunteers who happen to own their own helicopters?

Surely somebody is paying, somewhere along the line? Maybe public funds from taxation, maybe paid for by lift companies?

A snowHead

@rob@rar, government funded, which means it comes from the magic money tree.

A snowHead

@rob@rar, In France, The ‘free rescues’ are done by PGHM (state funded) in the blue helos, call-sign Dragon (in case you see them in the local paper). They will also take over the difficult rescues (winching near cliffs, night rescues etc) when the commercial companies run out of capability.

More details about the Chamonix detachment here (in French):
https://www.pghm-chamonix.com/notre-unite/missions

As to where is free and where it’s not the ‘Law of the Mountain’ states that you must pay for a rescue within terrain that can be reached by gravity from the highest ski lift. This was developed in response to the huge cost to the State of rescues within ski areas. (My paraphrasing).

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

A good chunk of the Nz heli fund comes from gaming machine tax. Problem gamblers pay for heli rescues. Something perversely good about that

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

And it's not just winter and the ski season, in the Summer PGHM are just as busy with walkers/climbers / MTB accidents etc

Peloton de gendarmerie de haute montagne (PGHM) as the name implies concentrate their work to the Mountains, and often the CRS too.

They are almost like our Coastguard services and the old RAF Search n' Rescue who do still get called out.

When calling 112 you call will go through to the nearest departmental fire and rescue centre (CODIS), though always good to carry the local number.

They train all the time it seems and we're forever seeing them in action, training or working, especially as the heli HQ is just down the road in Briancon, but they have whole fleets of vans n'trucks. and certainly seems that there are no budget constraints on training with the helis etc

I don't attempt to keep up with them when out touring Laughing

as they're machines, but they're always quite interested in the dogs, and stop for a chat, especially if they have their dogs with them.

They are almost revered by all people in the Mountains inc guides* for the work they do, as do the French ever their Fire service,

Mind you they, like your normal Gendarmes can still get a bit arsey, as I found out this year when I was on my emtb up near the Col du Granon going through the barracks that are Interdit but everyone takes the track though, anyway I offered the arsey one a go on the bike and he loved it, plus in the past when the OH has been running up there they've cheered her on appreciating her efforts running up there.

All in all true "heroes" Very Happy

*as guides know when the pooh hits the fan they will be the ones clearing it up.

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Mine was €110 per minute. Billed from arrival.
Plus Dr's fees and all drugs administered at the time.

I was insured by the ÖAMTC (the Austrian AA).
I am also now insured by the Natur Freund mountain sports club and possibly the Alpinverein and the ski teachers' federation... so the next claim will be a paper work nightmare!

Help!!

Evacuation by helicopter: How much?

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