Safety on your ski holiday

Statistically, skiing is a fairly safe sport; the vast majority of weeks in the Alps end with aching muscles rather than plaster. But when something does go wrong it often happens fast, and the difference between a cheap and an expensive accident is more often decided by the paperwork before the trip than by anything you do on the slopes. Here is what you need to know.

Helmets and other protective kit

A helmet is as much a given on the piste today as a seatbelt in the car. In most resorts nine out of ten skiers wear one, and anyone without stands out. For children a helmet is also required by law in Italy and in several Austrian states. If you hire equipment in the resort, the helmet is often included for a few euros a day, but your own properly fitted helmet is always better than a borrowed one that fits so-so.

• Helmet: should sit firmly without wobbling, and be replaced after a hard impact even if it looks intact.
• Goggles: protect against sun as well as branches and ice crystals. Visibility is safety equipment.
• Back protector: standard in the snow park and sensible for anyone who skis fast or off-piste.
• Wrist guards: the snowboarder's most important protection, since the wrist takes most of the falls.
• Avalanche kit (transceiver, shovel, probe): compulsory knowledge and packing for off-piste, never optional.

Who has right of way on the piste?

Throughout the Alps the ten FIS rules of conduct apply, and they work as the highway code of the slopes. Courts in the alpine countries rule by them in collisions. The most important:

1. The skier below has right of way. You, coming from above or behind, are responsible for choosing a line that does not threaten anyone further down.
2. Overtaking may be done on either side, but with enough room for the person being overtaken to move freely.
3. Look uphill before you set off or cross a piste; whoever is coming has right of way.
4. Never stop in narrow or blind spots, and get up quickly after a fall.
5. Adapt your speed to visibility, conditions and your own ability; in practice rule number one.
6. In an accident you are obliged to help and to give your details, just as on the road.

The most common accidents

Injury statistics for alpine skiing are strikingly stable year after year. The knee is the skier's weak point (the twisting force when a ski catches accounts for roughly one injury in three), while snowboarders top the statistics for wrists instead. Approximate breakdown according to international injury studies:

Most accidents also happen in the afternoon on days two and three, when the legs are tired but the confidence has had time to recover. The last run before lunch and the last run of the day are the classic risk moments on the mountain; it is rarely a mistake to skip exactly that run.

Insurance applies on the pistes, read the small print

Here is the most important sentence in this guide: winter sports cover normally applies only on marked pistes and within the ski area. If you ski off-piste outside the marked area without a guide, both treatment costs and the rescue operation can end up on your own bill, and a helicopter in the Alps quickly costs thousands of pounds. Several insurers accept off-piste if you ski with a qualified guide, but that is a condition, not a given, so read your own insurer's wording before you leave the edge of the piste.

The GHIC card, apply before you travel

The UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) gives you medically necessary state healthcare on the same terms as residents throughout the EU and in Switzerland, so in Austria, Italy, France and Switzerland, the whole of the Alps. This is how it works:

• Free. The card costs nothing, neither to apply for nor to renew, and it is valid for up to five years. Beware of websites that charge a fee; the only place to apply is the NHS.
• Apply for the whole party in one go. You apply once on the NHS website for yourself and can add your partner and children under 16 to the same application. Every person needs their own card, babies included, and it takes as long to apply for one as for six.
• Allow a couple of weeks for delivery. The card comes by post and cannot be hurried, so do it the same day you book the trip. A valid EHIC still works until it expires.
• Covers necessary treatment from providers within the country's state healthcare system. You pay the same patient charges as residents.
• Does not cover private clinics (common in ski resorts!), repatriation to the UK, piste rescue or helicopters.

Apply for a free GHIC on the NHS website › The NHS page also explains exactly what the card gives you in each country.

If the worst happens, in what order do you do what?

This is the question that is hardest to think clearly about when it actually happens, so read it now rather than later. The basic rule: ring the assistance line first, pay yourself last.

1. Emergency help on the piste. Alert the piste patrol via the lift staff or the emergency number printed on the lift pass and the piste map. Throughout the EU and Switzerland 112 works. Piste rescue and helicopters are called out by them, not by you.
2. Ring your travel insurer's 24-hour emergency assistance line before any major treatment starts. The number is on your policy documents and in the insurer's app. They are open around the clock. If you ring them first they can pay the hospital directly, approve treatment at a private clinic and arrange repatriation. If you ring afterwards you risk footing the bill yourself.
3. Show the GHIC on the spot. With state providers the card means you pay the same patient charge as a local resident instead of the full cost. At private clinics, which are common in ski resorts, the card does not help at all, and there it is the assistance line's payment guarantee that counts.
4. Can you pay yourself? Yes, smaller amounts are fine, and sometimes there is no choice. But keep everything: original receipts, medical notes, X-ray reports, prescriptions and receipts for taxis or transport. Without documentation the claim is hard to get through. If the amount is large, ring the assistance line first and let them take the invoice directly.
5. Report the claim to the insurer when you get home, even if you have already spoken to the assistance line. They are two different things: the assistance line sorts out the trip, the claim settles the money. Most insurers have a deadline, often a year, but do it while it is fresh in your mind.

Save the assistance line's number in your phone before you leave home, together with your policy number. In the middle of an accident on a slope with poor reception nobody wants to dig through a policy document.

Travel insurance, check what it covers

Travel insurance is what pays for the things the GHIC does not: treatment costs in full, repatriation to the UK, rescue on the mountain and compensation for lasting injury. Skiing is not covered by every policy, so before you travel:

• Check that your policy includes winter sports cover, and add it if not. Many annual multi-trip policies leave it out unless you ask.
• Read the exclusions: off-piste, snow park, competitions and sometimes heli-skiing are treated differently by different insurers.
• Save the insurer's emergency assistance number in your phone before you need it.
• If you book flights or other travel services separately, an insurance sometimes comes with that purchase; double-check what it covers so you neither pay twice nor end up without.

Two add-ons worth knowing about. The lift pass normally includes no insurance, but many lift companies sell an optional add-on at the desk, the best known being the French Carre Neige, bought per day with the lift pass and covering piste rescue and treatment costs on the spot. Your bank card may also carry cover: many premium cards, for example American Express Platinum and Revolut Premium or Metal, include travel insurance with cancellation cover, often on condition that the trip was paid for with the card. Levels vary a great deal, so read the card terms as carefully as the policy.

Frequently asked questions

Read on

Insurance terms vary between companies and change between seasons; it is always your own policy document that applies. Helmet laws and local rules can change; check the current rules for your resort. This page is general information, not insurance advice.