[skilled]

I did the Everest base camp trek in late 2015, at that time it was quite common (saw it myself and heard about it) that people would do the trek up but to get down they would fake a leg/back injury or blame altitude sickness and the chopper from Kathmandu would come pick you up, as long as you had the right insurance.

[WarmWash]

Surely the insurers would quickly become aware of this, I mean, there are people whose job it is to monitor all claims and adjust prices accordingly.

So while it might feel like the insurers were getting fleeced, it was almost certainly the insured who didn't get the copter ride.

[bell-cot]

Not an insurance underwriter - but wouldn't the obvious counter-move be to exclude coverage for medical assistance/transportation when you're climbing mountains overseas, spelunking, within X miles of the north or south pole, traveling in a submarine, or have otherwise ventured into "high-dollar extraction" territory?

[Ectiseethe]

I went to Nepal two years ago. The standard insurance of my Mastercard Gold specifically excluded medical assistance/transportation for acute altitude sickness from the coverage (and rescue operators are reluctant to intervene without proof of proper insurance coverage).

As a precaution (having read about it on forums) I had taken an additional insurance from a French shop specialized in hiking and mountaineering (le Vieux Campeur) to cover more events.

Good thing I did because I ended up having to be evacuated for something that was initially considered as acute altitude sickness and turned out to be a lot more life threatening once in the hospital.

[fwipsy]

The obvious counter move is just to charge higher premiums. It works whether the crises are real or fabricated. The real losers are not the insurance companies, but other tourists overpaying on their premiums.

[jltsiren]

In my experience, it's only the cheap insurance policies bundled with credit cards and various memberships that consider high-altitude hiking a high-risk activity. Any travel insurance you buy as individual should cover it. If there is an altitude limit, it's usually 6000 m, so Everest Base Camp and Kilimanjaro would be covered but Aconcagua wouldn't. And any actual mountaineering would also be high-risk, regardless of altitude.

[trillic]

Priced into the premium. It's not your run of the mill health insurance.

[ghaff]

When I actually climbed one of the 6K meter peaks I had to get some special alpine insurance. Don’t remember the details. Was a long time ago.

[advisedwang]

Extreme activities are excluded from standard travel insurance packages. This is happening with insurance specifically for these activities.

[razakel]

Normal travel insurance doesn't cover high-risk activities like mountaineering. You have to buy a specialist policy.

[stronglikedan]

The people doing that could probably afford the copter ride outright, so they can afford the "right" insurance that wouldn't ask any questions. The uber-wealthy live under a completely different system than the average schmuck like me.

[bombcar]

I wonder how much a chopper ride would cost at "reasonable rates" (e.g, not the air ambulance but just a chopper).

[MikeNotThePope]

I can tell you exactly what it cost for me. I took the helicopter from Gorakshep, the highest/last town on the EBC trek, to Lukla, the crazy airport people call the most dangerous one in the world. For me, a 255 lbs / 115kg guy, 2 Nepalis that are each half my size, a pilot, and our not-that-heavy hiking gear was 2000 USD in October of 2024.

Pics/video: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBTpLGtydZW/

[ddlatham]

probably mean 255 lb / 115kg

[MikeNotThePope]

Yes, thanks for noticing. I fixed.

[AndrewKemendo]

Nothing beats good quality, freshly sourced, all natural ground truth data

[doikor]

Per person around $1500. Over 10k of you can’t fill the chopper.

[paxys]

I'm assuming less than the average ambulance ride in the USA

[throwway120385]

From personal experience it's about twice the cost of an ambulance ride from my house to the hospital. Air ambulances here are about 10 times as much.

[bombcar]

Having something scheduled is cheaper than on-demand, too. You may even end up using the same equipment, but at a lower priority (it costs $200 or so to have an ambulance sit at your event, for example).

[hermitcrab]

Yes, but it might be in some ancient Russian helicopter of unknown provenance.