Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board AAC Rescue Insurance Change

Anyone else heard about the new "Insurance" change at AAC?

Membership in the American Alpine Club used to guarantee $5000 in rescue insurance in the event of an accident. Now, you're still covered to $5K, but only if you call their "Global Rescue Service" to come and get you.

This strikes me as absurd.

Forget for a moment the issue that "Global Rescue", not the local specialists, will do the S&R.

Picture mortally injured climber, semi-conscious: "No, wait, please don't call 911...call my rescue service. I've got the number right here...somewhere...AAK"

Getting rescue insurance is the big reason I pay AAC's steep membership fee each year. In my opinion, that benefit has just vanished.

Andy

I have not reread the fine print lately, but

doesn't AAC coverage begin at the trailhead? meaning you gotta use whatever means to get there first, and THEN, they pay for it thereafter? Sorry if I am wrong and confuse the issue.

By the way, $5000 is actually very little coverage anyway. Harvey

$5000 won't get you much and it is also good only below 6000 meters. I haven't looked at this new policy yet but you used to be able to purchase additional coverage in 1 week blocks for the time you plan to spend above 6000 meters. Can you still purchase that and get a higher coverage amount for a specified time period?

When I went to Antarctica we were required to have $300,000 per person in coverage. There are companies that will let you purchase that kind of coverage for a month or a whole year.

Here's the short blurb on the changes:

NEW RESCUE SERVICE FOR AAC MEMBERS

The AAC has contracted with Global Rescue, a leading worldwide rescue and evacuation service provider, to offer an improved rescue service as a benefit of AAC membership. This new service will replace the AAC's existing rescue insurance, effective December 1, 2007. Global Rescue's service has no deductible and no altitude limitation or backcountry activity exclusions (eligibility for rescue begins and ends at the trailhead.) Global Rescue already provides its services to the U.S. Adventure Racing Association and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Teams, among others.

Global Rescue will provide up to $5,000 worth of rescue services, in-transit medical care, and evacuation to a medical facility; additional services may be purchased as needed. AAC members also will receive a 5% discount on Global Rescue's comprehensive rescue plans; these plans offer additional benefits and can be purchased annually or for a short-term trip.

As a rescue service, and not insurance, Global Rescue has several significant operating changes from the old AAC plan. Most importantly, no matter where you are, there is only one number you need to call to request rescue assistance (1-617-459-4200); you need not, and should not, call a local rescue service.

All of the new benefits and procedures are outlined here. For more information, please contact Jason Manke, the AAC's Membership Director.

-----------------

And link to more detail:

http://americanalpineclub.org/pages/page/97

This part strikes me as utterly asinine:

"IMPORTANT: DO NOT CALL LOCAL EMERGENCY SERVICES; LET GLOBAL RESCUE MAKE THOSE CALLS FOR YOU – OTHERWISE YOU MAY NOT BE COVERED."

The AAC benefit has changed to a service model from an insurance model. This note is a normal characteristic of the service model. For example: the AAA has roadside -service-, they don't pay for services I contract for. I have to call AAA for roadside service, even though the service is performed by a local provider.

If you want to buy insurance, you will have to look elsewhere. If buying insurance has been your only participation in the AAC, you probably won't miss each other.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com
http://stores.lulu.com/dbd

I'm not that familiar with the AAC policies, but I think when the AAC says "begins and ends at the the trailhead", they don't mean that you must drag yourself to the trailhead before a rescue, but rather that you are not covered when you are not climbing (i.e. if you get into an auto accident, it's not covered).

Could someone familiar with National Park and National Forest rules explain about rescues? Is the rescued person expected to pay, or does his/her permit fee act as a kind of insurance? Does a typical medical insurance plan cover rescues?

-Stephen

Each park determines their own policy about this at present. I know about Yellowstone in detail, but I think they are pretty typical of most other national parks. This topic about who pays for rescues is often debated among the rangers. When an overweight, out of shape backpacker with no experience comes into the backcountry ranger station to get a permit for challenging territory, the rangers try to educate that person about the risks and challenges hoping that they will convince them not to take on more than they can do. However, the rangers can't prevent someone from going. So, when the inevitable happens and they have to mount an expensive rescue operation, who should pay? At present, the park pays everything even though it was made clear to the backpacker that they were not prepared to go on this trip.

Just be sure to bring your credit card with you on your hike. SAR has a swipe machine to run your card through before they hoist you up in the basket beneath the rescue chopper.

Although my wife and I are hikers not climbers, I have maintained an AAC membership in the event of needing a helicopter ride out and being presented with a big bill. The prospect of having to call a long distance number instead of local SAR is just nuts. You have to wonder if the cost of membership is worth the annual book because that is the only benefit at this point.

I hope you know the number of the local (appropriate, as it varies along the trail) SAR. If you call 911 you get routed through a dispatch organization trained in other matters. And they have to make another phone call to the SAR. As the AAC service provider would. The AAC provider would then coordinate transportation to hospital facilities from where the SAR brings you out. Then you can decide where you want to go for treatment and the transportation costs fall under the AAC coverage. At least, that's my current understanding of it after following the references posted here.

The differences between coverage or buy the magazines yourself are:
1) $$$ as in dues cost minus magazine cost
2) call to single service provider number with long distance toll, reguardless of where you are versus you know the right SAR number for your location or go through the 911 chain to find the appropriate SAR. (This is not recommended by those at the visitor center.)
3) Commercial transportation costs are covered up to the policy limit versus no coverage.

If you travel to other areas the availability of SAR and uncharged transportation may vary as will the potential total costs of rescue and desirable level of coverage.

Earlier posters left out the contact point the AAC suggests for those who want to know more:
"Questions? Please contact Jason Manke at jmanke@AmericanAlpineClub.org"

I don't make any recommendation other than that if anyone considers acquiring coverage of some kind that they consider the facts of the services offered, how they effect one's potential exposure with it's potential consequences and the capabilities of the provider instead of silly assertions posted on discussion boards in messages including this one signed:

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com
http://stores.lulu.com/dbd

Rescue insurance is not a trivial benefit. Rescue assets, including helicopters, are expensive. It is not only prudent but responsible to plan for such costs in the (hopefully) unlikely event they are needed. We do the same for house fires, car crashes, and medical problems.

Sadly, it is not easy to find rescue insurance coverage in the U.S. Prior to this change by the AAC, the best (if not only) option to get rescue insurance has usually been through AAC membership, rather than buying direct from an underwriter.

It's nice that AAC has teamed up with a new rescue service. In certain circumstances, that could prove to be a useful benefit.

But it is no substitute for insurance.

I say again: requiring people *not* to call 911 in an emergency is insane

The phone number is in area code 617. This is Boston. I'm curious to know how someone in Boston can know which SAR serves every trail and peak on Earth? Would you buy fire insurance that required you to call Boston instead of your local fire department? Do you want to be bleeding on the trail while somebody in Boston tries to figure out exactly where you are and who to call?

That's a good question.

At least the person who answers the number is likely to know how SAR organizations operate and that picking the right one is part of the problem, which is better than you can count on from 911.

But that's a poor analogy.

In the days of the pony express, getting the word out could take a long time, and distance meant time. Today, if you can make the connection to the phone system, distance on that network is not important. There are a lot of people who use home and personal security services that have centralized dispatch functions that call local police and fire departments and monitor the response that is made. That monitoring is a part of the service. You don't really know where the person responding to your call is located. You don't think 911 responders covering rural areas are local do you?

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com
http://stores.lulu.com/dbd

As has been pointed out many times on this board, don't call 911 for on the trail emergencies. You get CHP. You are much better off calling the nearest Inyo County sheriff's office because they are the first responders. Here are the numbers you should carry with you while hiking in the southern Sierras and Death Valley:

(760) 878-0383 Independence
(760) 873-7887 Bishop
(760) 876-5606 Lone Pine
(760) 764-2313 Olancha
(760) 852-4313 Tecopa-Shoshone
(760) 786-2238 Death Valley

In addition, the Inyo SAR website lists these additional numbers:

Posse Hut(SAR Compound) 760-873-5535
Sergeant Randy Nixon (W)760-873-6431 or 760-873-7887, (P)888-421-7243(10022)
Corporal Keith Hardcastle (W)760-878-0321, (C)760-878-0323, (P)760-243-7243(8600)
Corporal Terry Waterbury (W)760-873-7887, (C)760-784-0960

Or you could just call China Lake Mountain Rescue Group and plead for Bob R to save you:

To contact CLMRG in an emergency, please contact the Kern County Sheriff's Office Com Center (661 or 800-861-3110) or the China Lake Police (760-939-3323)

Of course, if anybody still wants to call Boston, be my guest. I know who I'm calling.

When calling for emergency services it is important to call a line that is monitored on a 24 hour basis by a trained responder. It is not necessary to call the exact office or desk that you would like to have respond. Call someone who will be there to initiate a response. And you must know the number!!!

The InyoSAR site says:
"To contact the team, call (760) 873-7887 or (760) 878-0323. These telephones are manned at all times by the Inyo County Sheriff's dispatcher."

The more extensive list of numbers given in this thread for InyoSAR is on a page beginning:
"Contact Us
Please send any questions, comments and/or donations to:"
These are not all numbers promised to be manned at any given time.

The previously posted list of Inyo Sheriff's numbers includes sites that may not be manned. I know because I just called the Olancha number and there was no human answerer and no answering machine.

Both of the numbers recommended by the InyoSAR as 24 hour manned are in the Sheriff's phone list for normal business, too. I called one and asked the dispatchers what numbers should be used to place backcountry emergency calls by people who can get to cell coverage. They said that they always recommend one number: 911 They trust 911 to forward the message to them. (I think they also have some faith, appropriate or not, that callers will be able to remember the right number to call.) No matter how many times it has been pointed out that 911 is not direct, it works. If you can't make an emergency call without something to give you a smug feeling of knowing better than others, you can always tell the 911 dispatcher to call the sheriff.

You will not get -any- response that does not involve multiple phone calls. Phones are used by all groups involved to collect and direct resources. The InyoSAR site states that if you call for assistance for another person they will call the Sheriff's office for clearance to proceed. Multiple calls will take place no matter what you find it comfortable to think.

This thread has revealed an alarming amount of ignorant technophobia. Worse, people have posted information that could endanger people in emergencies if they have limited cell phone battery time by listing multiple potentially dead-end numbers.

Whatever you choose:
1) Have a -manned- number to call
2) Know the number (if you forget, can you remember 911?)

The world does not have your grandparents' phone system. Get over it. Use it. There is no alternative if you are going to call for help. Better yet, plan, prepare, be lucky if you have to, but always be safe.

Dale B. Dalrymple
I know how to dial the nine, how do I dial the eleven?

Dale's point is worth repeating for the folks at home:

If you don't know who to call (or forget the appropriate local agencies' number), dial 911.

Your call may be routed, but it will get through.

Everyone's assuming that if you get in a world of hurt, that you'll be making the call.

Isn't it more likely that someone gets into a situation where they need SAR, and someone else does the calling?

In which case, if you are conscious, you'd need to remember to tell them, hey, WAIT! STOP!, don't run down to the Portal store and tell Doug someone needs help on the mountain, here take this number (scribbling feebly on a tiny scrap of paper, hunched over, broken, twisted body in pain) and find a pay phone or somewhere where your cell works and call that number, please! No, honest, really, I'm serious! Don't lose it!

And if you're really in a bad way and not conscious, you might want to consider putting that Boston number on your new medic-alert bracelet.

In case I'm being too obtuse, I'm agreeing that having to call some specific phone number in order to get help is unrealistic and impractical.

Certainly, I don't leave the trailhead with a group that doesn't exchange relevant medical and contact information before starting. We even tell other people where we plan to go and when we plan to return.

You won't get to a trailhead with a professional guide service without providing medical and contact information.


If you require or prefer a particular place of treatment and want to access a service providing paid transportation to your choice of facility, you need to put that message somewhere.


You just seem to think much less of the judgment, capabilities and value of the people you travel with than I think of the people I travel with.

Dale B. Dalrymple
Do all of the people concerned about a Boston area code think that satellite phones make you talk to people on satellites?

Mr. Dalrymple,

It seems you're more concerned about being "right" than listening to anyone else's arguments. Guess what? It's okay for people to disagree with you. And, that doesn't make them idiots either.

Re your quote above, no one said that, did they? So why assert that anyone did?

Since you're so well prepared, I doubt you're much of a candidate for a SAR mission. In the real world, however, the people that Search and Rescue go out looking for aren't necessarily the ones who are super-prepared. Then there's the issue of whether anyone in your party will even have cell phone connectivity. (I know, you undoubtedly bring a satellite phone. Nevertheless, most do not.)

So, in a crisis, word spreads. Strangers want to help. Someone takes off and runs down (or up) the hill. Maybe one of your party does as well, or maybe they want to stay in place to look-for/assist the member of your party in trouble, whatever. My point, which you clearly missed, was that the person who first reaches a point of being able to contact authorities may or may not be a member of your party. Many, many, many times it is a well meaning stranger. (I could give you numerous examples, but I sense this is going nowhere, so I'm not going to bother.)

Expecting a stranger to follow some non-normal protocol for getting help is unreasonable. Heck, you may not even know that someone has gone for help until they've already departed. Even if you immediately dispatch a pre-designated team member from your well-oiled machine of a group, he/she may not reach a contact point before the other person. Thereby rendering your call to 'Global Assist' (or whatever they are) moot.

To be clear: My points were limited to the above scenario. I did not say anything about (a) going with a guided group, (b) leaving itinerary/travel plans, (c) requiring or wanting treatment at a specific facility.

No, I do not. Once again, an assertion that was never made, mis-quoted, taken out of context.

(Sigh)