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Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance for Australians

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We wrote this article to cover trekking and mountaineering insurance for Australians, as it’s often hard to find. As we often search for our own needs, we decided to share our findings to help others. You can also check out our other article with general info and tips on Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance.

Our focus is on insurance for high altitude and also for the use of mountaineering equipment when needed (helmet, crampons, ice axe, ropes, harness etc).

We’ve reviewed over 45 providers, encompassing insurance companies, rescue specialists, alpine clubs, climbing clubs, recommendations from expedition companies, aggregator & comparison websites, blogposts, as well as talking to other trekkers and mountaineers. As of 2026 we’re no longer reviewing each provider, but this blogpost will hopefully at least give you some pointers of what to look out for.

Disclaimer: This is general information based on our research. As always, you should read the latest policy fine print, online reviews and consider your own personal requirements. We are not using affiliate links in the content of this article and do not earn commission from any insurance companies that we mention.

The Australian Travel Insurance Market

Things are changing all the time so its always worth searching for new offerings or tighter restrictions.

Improvements we’ve found in recent years are:

  • new providers with more modern websites and easier to understand language
  • innovative offerings e.g. as at 2025 we found
  • World Nomads international brand has been sold by NIB to IMG (announced February 2026)

Restrictions we’ve uncovered often relate to specific countries or regions e.g.

  • a few providers specifically exclude Nepal – not helpful for trekkers going there
  • we read that if you’re in the UK/EU and are going trekking in Nepal, that most insurers have a policy excess of £750/€900 if you need to be rescued by helicopter for medical reasons. So check the policy fineprint in case this becomes the trend in Australia.

Some policies just don’t make sense eg last time we checked, NIB policies allow up to 6000m but don’t cover activities on snow and ice!!! (except for their skiing package and their World Nomads branded policy). Not much help for mountaineering.

What to Consider when Searching for Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance

Read the section in our main article on Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance – What to Consider which covers:

  1. Decide what type of cover you need
  2. Create a shortlist of providers based on your minimum requirements
  3. Check other important factors
  4. Weigh up cost vs risk
  5. Read the fine print of the policy before you purchase it.

Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance for Australians as at 2025

As at 2026 we’re no longer reviewing individual providers, but feel free to use our last review as at 2025 to kickstart your own research. See the image below or download it as a free pdf (no email required!). You may need a combination of providers to get all the cover you need. Links in the image are listed below.

For detailed descriptions of the types of providers, please refer to the section in our main article on Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance that cover:

  1. Check with your expedition company first
  2. Remote Rescue Specialists
  3. Alpine Clubs
  4. Travel Insurers
  5. Reciprocal Health Care Agreements and NZ ACC
  6. Insurance Aggregators/Comparison Websites
  7. Online Reviews
  8. Nepal Helicopter Rescue Scams
Summary table of trekking and mountaineering insurance for Australians
Download the PDF

NOTES

Rock & Ice climbing: some of the providers we reviewed allow for rock climbing, bouldering and ice climbing even if they don’t allow for the broader definition of mountaineering (with ropes, crampons, ice axe etc). Some have limits on altitude with rock climbing or certain types of rock climbing. We have not done a complete review of rock or ice climbing as our focus is high altitude trekking and mountaineering.

Seniors discounts worth checking out e.g. NSW Seniors discounts https://www.nsw.gov.au/community-services/seniors-card/deals-discounts/insure-and-go

Some policies require your mobile phone IMEI in the event of a claim, so make a note of it before you travel e.g. “We will not pay any claim relating to a mobile phone or device with phone capabilities if you are unable to supply the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity).”

Smarttraveller travel advisory: check what you’re covered for if the advice-level changes before or during your travel e.g. last time we checked, WorldNomads specifically call this out. Others don’t and you may need to ask them e.g. in 2025 when Nepal advice changed from ‘exercise a high degree of caution’ to ‘reconsider your need to travel’ we asked our insurer who said that we’d be covered if we bought the policy before advice changed (and we had a valid reason to cancel the trip before it started), but if we chose to go then we were uncertain/unlikely to be covered. So we had to buy a new policy that covered that advice level.

LINKS INCLUDED IN THE ABOVE IMAGE

Remote Rescue Specialists

(see main article for description here)

Alpine Clubs

(see main article for description here)

Travel Insurers – Higher Altitudes

Note: A lot of brands have the same underlying Insurers. However note that each brand is priced differently based on the specific cover they provide – so read the fine print. We’ve also noticed that the process and service levels are not so good for policies sold by resellers or agents (rather than going direct to the main Insurer) – both for arranging evacuation and also when making claims.

  • Insure4Less
  • Flip
  • Cover-More based policies (underwritten by Zurich) are sold by Cover-More, Medibank, AHM, Webjet, NRMA (update Oct 2025: no altitude limit with NRMA?), Freely. Virgin Australia is slightly different in that they link you to Cover-More as their partner.
  • Allianz-based policies are sold by: Allianz, WorldCare, Boomers
  • World Nomads (update Feb 2026: World Nomads international brand has been sold to IMG – so not sure how this policy will change or
  • Lloyds-based policies: FastCover, Zoom
    • Zoom allows outdoor rock climbing
  • Journeyman (via Campbell Irvine)
  • Mitsui Sumitomo-based policies: Insure&Go, Tick
  • PassportCard
  • NIB-based policies (underwritten by XL Insurance Company SE) are sold by: NIB, Qantas, Travel Insurance Saver, Travel Insurance Direct and Cota
    • note that World Nomads is also an NIB-based insurer but we’ve listed this separately because unlike the other NIB-based policies they don’t exclude activities on snow/ice and they DO offer insurance for high altitude trekking (but not mountaineering). They also are the only one we’ve seen so far that specifically call out that you’re covered if the travel advisory changes after you bought the policy and booked arrangements… not to say that others exclude it though.
      • UPDATE FEB 2026: World Nomads sold to IMG – will be interesting to see how their policy changes for Australians, or whether NIB update their Australian-based policies to allow for more adventure activities including snow/ice.
    • also note that for Cota, while they say they provide insurance for senior Australians, there is no age limit for their Comprehensive or Annual plans
    • if you’re looking at any of the NIB policies (except for World Nomads) and need cover for snow/ice then check with them and get their response in writing. We experienced conflicting views from Travel Insurance Saver: one trekker was told that they would be covered for trekking on snow/ice yet when we submitted a query we were told that trekking on snow/ice would not be covered

Travel Insurers – Lower Altitudes

These are just some examples – there are many other travel insurance providers who also insure for lower altitudes.

OTHER IDEAS

Credit Card Travel Insurance

Travel insurance that comes with your credit card can sometimes cover you, at least for your basic travel needs, but they are usually more restrictive than the purchased policies e.g.

  • Excluding travel advisories of ‘reconsider your need to travel’ as well as ‘do not travel’
  • Excluding higher altitudes unless you purchase the adventure add-on
  • The amount of cover you get is often not as much as policies that you buy
  • Check what you need to do to activate the policy eg register the trip to get a policy, spend a certain amount on your trip using the credit card and have the bank statement to prove it
  • Check whether the policy is still valid if your credit card has to be replaced

Check for Discounts

It’s worth checking with your health insurer or any other memberships you have in case they provide discounts on travel insurance.

Annual Policies

If you’re doing a lot of travel then an annual policy is often cheaper than buying multiple policies.

Tips for Making a Travel Insurance Claim

Read the section in our main article for Tips on making a Travel Insurance Claim which covers:

  1. Know and follow the rules of the policy (although some can be unreasonable e.g. requiring a PCR test in a remote area)
  2. Make every effort to reduce extra costs and document how you did this in your claim
  3. Get all the supporting documentation if something goes wrong
  4. Make your claim easy to read and in the correct format

Useful links

Some other good posts on the Australian market for trekking/mountaineering insurance:

General guides on Australian travel insurance:

For travel to NZ:

Helicopter Rescue - Trekking and Mountaineering Insurance for Australians

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