For those of our travelers who are planning adventures to high altitude destinations such as Kilimanjaro, The Inca Trail, Everest Base Camp, etc., making sure that your travel insurance will cover you while at or above 15,000 ft is important.
As the recent TravelMarket article, “Travel Insurance May Not Cover High-Altitude Treks to Kilimanjaro, Everest”, discusses, many travel insurance providers do not cover travelers participating in activities at high altitudes.
Here is a quick breakdown of what they cover when considering altitude and trekking:
- TRAVEL INSURED INTERNATIONAL: No altitude exclusions. Mountaineering, using ropes, technical tools and equipment, however, is NOT included/covered.
- RIPCORD: Ripcord has an incredible reputation for being one of the premier mountain rescue insurance companies. They do not have any altitude restrictions and have done numerous rescues of their clients all over the world including tricky high camp rescues on Mt Everest, Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua.
- TRAVEL GUARD: No altitude exclusions (mountaineering is EXCLUDED if ropes used) However, different states have different policies. For example: Travel Guard Plus for Colorado DOES include mountaineering. Double check for your specific state is considering Travel Guard.
- TRAVELEX: No altitude restrictions. However, they have exclusions if using mountaineering equipment — ice axe, ropes, crampons, etc. That said, their travel select policy for around $20/person will remove the mountaineering exclusion.
