“Treks to the Himalayas have two seasons during the year: one of them is currently running (from March to May) and the other, even more popular, runs from October to November. Most of the journeys duplicate these two periods,” says Eva Trajboldová, manager of UNIQA personal insurance products.
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Who goes from the Czech Republic to the Himalayas?
About 2,500 clients a year go to the Himalayas with UNIQA travel insurance in the last few years. A large group is made up of members of the Czech Mountaineering Association, which is insured for expeditions by UNIQA. In recent years, they have been leaving for the Himalayan peaks with expeditions for 700 experienced member-climbers. They have a special exception and modified conditions in their insurance coverage so that they can climb the highest mountains.
If an ordinary tourist wants to undertake a high-altitude trek, UNIQA’s ordinary travel insurance covers accidents up to an altitude of 3,000 m above sea level. climbing equipment, as climbing high mountain peaks is excluded from the insurance.
Some Czech travel agencies specialize in the Himalayas. They focus either on high-altitude hikes up to 5,000 m above sea level, or a few selected partner CKs even on mountaineering expeditions above 5,000 m above sea level, because based on their long-term expertise and with experienced mountain guides, they received an exception from UNIQA and customized insurance conditions. In the Czech Republic, we also come across a special CK offer for seniors who are fulfilling their lifelong dream of an active holiday in the Himalayas. In their case, it is mainly high-altitude hiking. In recent years, about 1,000 clients with UNIQA insurance have traveled to the Himalayas with CK with travel agencies. The rest of the tourists equipped with UNIQA travel insurance travel to Nepal individually each year.
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What problems does UNIQA solve for tourists in the Himalayas and how much does it cost?
A typical problem is altitude sickness (also acute mountain sickness). Symptoms include headache, vomiting, shortness of breath and fatigue. At lower altitudes, as a rule, the victim must be brought down as soon as possible. If he is not alone and injured, he can manage it with the help of other members of the group without the intervention of rescuers. At other times, it is necessary to call for help to the tourist, which in Nepali conditions almost always means picking up the patient by helicopter and transporting either to a more favorable altitude, where the person in question can recover, or to a hospital for medical treatment.
Altitude sickness and breathing difficulties, as well as acute worsening of weather conditions and frostbite of climbers on mountain faces, always mean helicopter assistance; in bad weather conditions, rescue may only be possible after the umpteenth takeoff. The same applies to severe injuries or polytraumas after falling from a height.
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In the autumn season of 2023 alone, there were around thirty such cases of rescue of UNIQA clients. One local helicopter take-off costs 120-160 thousand crowns on average, a stay in the hospital another tens of thousands of crowns, if the condition is more serious. Surgery and recovery after polytraumas will cost at least hundreds of thousands of crowns.
For example, in 2022, UNIQA registers the case of a climber who fell several hundred meters after falling from a mountain and suffered polytrauma. A helicopter picked him up at the impact site and transported him to a hospital, where he was treated for several months, and then repatriated back to the Czech Republic. All costs were covered by UNIQA from his travel insurance: the total bill amounted to 2.78 million crowns.
Last fall, a Czech mountaineer killed himself by falling from a 6,000-meter peak. Retrieving his remains required not only the deployment of a helicopter, but also a mission of climbers to transport his body to a place from where it could be airlifted. This operation cost about 650,000 crowns. The subsequent air repatriation cost 350,000 crowns.
The client CK’s event had a happier ending during a trek at an altitude of 4,500 m above sea level. She suffered from frostbite and swelling of her lower limbs, which prevented her from continuing. Helicopter transport, hospital treatment and repatriation home were calculated at more than half a million crowns.
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Watch out for exclusions
The client is always obliged to prevent insurance events and at the same time act in accordance with local regulations. “These are quite strict in the Himalayan region, whether it is a visa requirement or the period of a mountain climbing permit. At the same time, it is necessary to comply with the necessary acclimatization, to have the necessary adequate equipment available and to go on the route only with a mountain guide, if necessary. No risk must be underestimated in the high mountains, as neglect can be fatal.” warns Eva Trajboldová.
In cases where climbers or tourists commit an offense or contribute to the occurrence of an insured event themselves, the insurance company can regress its performance against them.