Beware of Slope Rage Warns Go Travel Insurance

December 20, 2004

'Don't Slip Up Thanks to Slope Rage' Warns Go Travel Insurance

Skiers and snowboarders from theUK are this year increasingly likely to experience the growing phenomenon of “Slope Rage”, according to leading travel insurance provider, Go Travel Insurance (www.gotravelinsurance.co.uk)

Slope Rage is the on-piste equivalent of 'Road Rage’ that can start the moment a skier queues to board the cable car. It can then build up during further queuing for chair lifts, or later when the winter sports’ enthusiast is actually skiing or snowboarding down the mountain.

Factors fuelling Slope Rage are incidents such as queue jumping, tiredness, linguistic problems with other skiers or ski resort officials, and, most frequently, skiers exercising a lack of courtesy whilst on the slope, resulting in them cutting across other mountain users, destroying their “run”.

Go Travel Insurance’s Chief Executive, Christian Young, explains: “A mountain is very much a road or motorway to a skier, being a route on which they will journey, to achieve their goal of arriving at their destination, when they want to and how they want to. If someone darts across them, it is exactly like being “cut up” on a road. If someone is hot on their heels, driving them faster down the slope, it is no different from tailgating.

“But, if they are forced off their path whilst having a fantastic run, frustration can truly boil over, as they have to literally start from scratch, queuing once more, to reach their start point.”

Whilst Slope Rage itself is unpleasant, ruining the mood and the atmosphere of the day, it can lead to further problems, in terms of liability claims, if someone is injured as a result of reckless or out-of-control behaviour. The number of liability claims lodged in American resorts has soared in recent years, with the trend spreading to Europe, as part of the name and blame mentality that is taking over.

For this reason, GO Travel Insurance offers £2 million of personal liability cover on its winter sports insurance policies and also provides £10 million of medical and repatriation cover, doubling this element recently, to ensure that injuries can be fully treated at no cost to the patient. It also urges skiers to sketch the scene of any piste accident in the same way that they would a road accident, noting the positions, comments and behaviour of all parties involved.

To complete the picture, GO has produced a Slope Rage fact-sheet which skiers can access by logging on to www.gotravelinsurance.co.uk, or by ringing its call centre on 0870 421 1521 for a quote. 

Through these means, GO Travel Insurance hopes to keep Slope Rage to a minimum and to ensure that its customers, and others, have a truly fantastic time on the mountains, without the blight of raised tempers and claims for compensation. 

About Go Travel Insurance Services Limited

Go Travel Insurance is a leading online travel insurance intermediary, which was established in 1998. The 2004 Consumer Intelligence survey of 2004 placed Go Travel Insurance in the top ten of travel insurance providers.

Owned by Drakefield Insurance Services Ltd, a Financial Service Authority regulated and authorised, insurance intermediary which specialises in the delivery of retail and wholesale insurance products via the Internet and our Essex based telesales operation.

Go Travel Insurance is recognised as a competitive, secure and easy online customer transaction site www.gotravelinsurance.co.uk, as well as a professionally trained insurance telesales team, based in Essex.

We are a customer focused business, an entrepreneurial and flexible organisation whose people are seasoned insurance, internet, IT, marketing and financial people.

Drakefield is a member of the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA), an ABTA travel partner member

Christian Young is CEO of Go Travel Insurance and Drakefield Insurance Services Ltd its parent company. He is always happy to discuss the company and /or provide comment or interview, he can be contacted at 0870 152 5848 or by email on Christian.young@gotravelinsurance.co.uk.

Alternatively please contact Gina Booth, PR & Marketing 0870 152 5848 or gina.booth@gotravelinsurance.co.uk

GO TRAVEL INSURANCE’S SLOPE RAGE FACT-SHEET 

To avoid raising the temperature of your fellow skiers, follow some simple rules of etiquette and don’t do anything that is likely to annoy others. 

DON’T ……

… Drop things from the chair-lift on to people below you

… Indulge in horse-play on the slopes

… Stop to pose for photographs in the middle of the piste

… Carry your skis in such a way that you can hit or injure other mountain users

… Try to adjust your boot strappings whilst in a crowded cable car

… Cause the drag-lift to shut down by putting too much strain on it

… Laugh at foreign skiers, hoping that they will not understand you

… Ski when feeling tired, stressed, or after drinking alcohol

DO

… Check that nobody is heading down the mountain before you cross or enter

slopes

… Choose your direction carefully, taking into account where others are

heading

… Make sure that your route will not endanger those below you

… Control your speed to suit the speed at which others are travelling on the

mountain

… Leave plenty of room if you overtake another slope user

… Avoid stopping in narrow places, or areas where it will be difficult to be

spotted.

… Keep to the side of the slope if you are walking up or down the mountain

… Move clear of the piste if you take a tumble

… Yield, or give way, to other skiers if you need to

… Maintain a distance of at least 30 feet between yourself and other skiers

… Stop and let other skiers pass you, if you know that they wish to get by

… Assist anyone who has an incident on the slope, raising the alarm, giving a

witness statement and helping the mountain rescue team.

… Make sure your bindings will prevent your skis running away and causing a

problem.

… OBEY ALL RESORT RULES, SIGNS AND WARNINGS

AND BUY COMPREHENSIVE WINTERSPORTS TRAVEL PROTECTION, WITH FULL MEDICAL AND LIABILITY COVER, AS PROVIDED BY GO TRAVEL INSURANCE (WWW.GOTRAVELINSURANCE.CO.UK) - 0870 421 1521