Freeride or Freeskiing Travel Insurance

DOGTAG has been insuring off-piste skiers and snowboarders for well and over a decade. In fact, DOGTAG was started by two extreme skiers (as it was known back then), who didn’t think that the travel insurance on offer at the time provided enough cover to winter sports enthusiasts. So, that’s why DOGTAG was born.

After starting Dogtag with off-piste skiers and snowboarders in mind, we thought that we might as well insure thousands of other extreme and outdoor sports enthusiasts. So, from bikers and climbers to divers and endurance athletes, if you’re into action-packed holidays, then we’ve got you covered.

We get asked about freeride or free skiing travel insurance all the time. So, we’ve pulled together a useful guide to answer some of the most common questions we receive around freeride or free skiing (yes, it even covers off-piste ski too).

Some of the cover available to you:

  • 24/7 Emergency Medical Assistance
  • Up to £10 million medical expenses including bringing you home if it is medically necessary or essential
  • Automatic policy extension if you can’t travel home as planned
  • Cover for lost or stolen baggage
  • Gadgets such as laptops and mobile phones covered as standard
  • Worldwide, European and UK cover, provided you do not travel against the FCDO* advice
  • Plus, much more!

Do You Cover Inverted Aerials?

Now, we’re aware that free skiing and free-ride can go by different definitions. But here at Dogtag, we want to be clear about one thing: we do not cover inverted aerials.

We’re afraid that we feel that the risk of injury is too high, so we have made the decision not to provide cover for inverted aerials. Sorry!

If you’d like to get a better understanding of the types of sports we do cover, please go ahead and check the Sports list, as this will provide you with more detail on what we can and can’t cover at Dogtag.

Do You Cover Back Country Ski with A Guide?

Venturing out of the resort into areas that are unmanaged and unpatrolled, especially with regard to rescue services and avalanche control are carry a higher level of risk than remaining within the resort.

However, if you have a local qualified guide with you, who knows the terrain, then we’re happy to insure you as long as you’re still skiing within the resort boundaries.

It’s worth mentioning that in some North American states, your resort may be in a national park. Sometimes going outside the resort without permission can result in you being in trouble with the local authorities. For this reason, we urge all skiers to make sure they know their resorts boundaries and to take care when going off-piste.

Do You Cover Back Country Without A Guide?

Yes, as part of a policy add-on. If you’re planning on skiing without a guide then you’ll need an extreme Winter Sports policy. This reason you’ll need additional cover is because skiing off-piste without a guide can be riskier.

Back Country skiing without a guide is rated as ‘Extreme’ here at DOGTAG because we class both Back-Country ski and Ski Mountaineering as very similar activities – both give you a rush of adrenaline but equally can be a little risky!

Finally, we always recommend that you ski in a group or with a friend, just in case either one of you require medical assistance on the trail and so you are not at any point on your own.

*Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

You can find some other useful information about the sports that we cover at DOGTAG in our Sports Information Library.