How much does an off piste rescue cost in Tignes?
996 euros. That is the fourth category on the Tignes ski patrol's own tariff, the one for off piste areas, effective from 1 December 2025 and read from the official rate card on 17 September 2026. The Tignes ski patrol's board of directors approved the whole table on 16 October 2025.
Search results for this question tend to give a range rather than a number, 300 to 500 euros on one page, 1,000 to 3,000 euros on another, neither naming a resort or a year. Both look like figures recycled from older articles rather than a published tariff. Tignes is one of the resorts that puts its own price list online, as a single PDF any skier can read before buying a lift pass.
The 996 euro figure covers only one of four categories the patrol uses, and it is a starting point rather than a ceiling. The same tariff adds an hourly rate on top when a snowcat, a skidoo or an extra patroller is needed, 304.80 euros an hour for the snowcat, 116.40 euros an hour for the skidoo and 78 euros an hour for each extra patroller, and a helicopter, if one is sent, is billed as a separate line again.
What are the four rescue categories and what do they cost?
Tignes ski patrol splits every ground rescue into four categories, priced from 74 to 996 euros depending on where on the mountain it happens. The board of directors sets the whole table once a season and the current one runs from 1 December 2025.
| Category | Where it applies | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 1st category | Snowfield zones of the resort, first aid, accompanying | 74 euros |
| 2nd category | Pistes for beginners | 285 euros |
| 3rd category | All other pistes | 500 euros |
| 4th category | Off piste areas | 996 euros |
What does a helicopter add to the bill?
A helicopter is billed separately from the ground rescue, and it is where a bill grows fastest. Without a doctor on board, the tariff charges 916 euros for a landing on piste and 1,377 euros off piste, plus 308 euros if the crew has to use a winch.
With a doctor on board the flight is billed by the minute instead of a flat fee, 85.22 euros a minute, plus the cost of the patrollers involved according to their location. A per minute rate with no published ceiling is the one figure on this tariff a skier cannot estimate in advance.
| Helicopter type | Rate |
|---|---|
| Without a doctor, on piste | 916 euros |
| Without a doctor, off piste | 1,377 euros |
| Extra charge for a winch | 308 euros |
| With a doctor on board | 85.22 euros per minute of flight, plus patroller cost |
How high can a single rescue bill actually go?
The categories are not exclusive, and a bad accident off piste can trigger several of them on the same day. Take the fourth category rescue and add a helicopter without a doctor sent off piste, and the ground and air charges alone total 996 euros plus 1,377 euros, 2,373 euros, before any hourly equipment time or ambulance transfer to hospital is added on top.
Add a winch to that helicopter and the figure moves to 2,681 euros. Put a doctor on board instead of a ground team and the flight itself has no ceiling at all, it runs at 85.22 euros for every minute in the air rather than a flat fee. None of these are hypothetical extras, they are separate lines on the same published tariff, and a single fall off piste can touch more than one of them at once.
Who actually pays a piste rescue bill in France?
The skier does, directly, unless insurance is already in place. Mountain rescue by ski patrol sits outside the French state health system, because it is a resort service billed by the local patrol, not hospital care. A carte vitale or a European Health Insurance Card does not reach it.
The 996 euro figure is also only the first line of a bill that can stack. Once ambulance or hospital transfer is involved, the same Tignes tariff adds further charges, a private ambulance from the resort to the local medical center at 210 to 235 euros, then a transfer on to hospital running from 375 euros to Bourg-St-Maurice up to 990 euros to Grenoble, depending on which hospital the SAMU emergency unit sends the case to.
This is the gap our travel insurance guide flags, a policy that covers medical treatment abroad does not automatically cover the mountain rescue that gets you to that treatment. Check the wording for piste rescue, search and rescue or mountain rescue as its own named benefit, not folded into a general emergency medical limit, before relying on a policy to cover a number like 996 euros.
Compare piste rescue cover before you goCheck the piste rescue and search and rescue limit specifically, not just the headline emergency medical number.
Which category does a normal fall on a blue run land in?
Second or third category, not the 996 euro line. The off piste category, the fourth one, only applies once a skier is outside the marked and patrolled trail network, not because a fall happened on a harder run.
A fall on a groomed, marked piste puts the rescue at 285 euros if it happens on a run classed for beginners, or 500 euros for every other marked piste, blue, red or black alike, under the category the tariff labels all other pistes. The 996 euro rate is reserved for the fourth category, where the patrol has to reach a skier who left the marked trail rather than one who fell on it.
- On a marked, patrolled piste, blue or otherwise, 285 or 500 euros, depending on the run's classification.
- Off the marked trail network, even a short distance past the rope, 996 euros, category four, plus any hourly equipment charge.
- A helicopter is added on top of either ground category only when the terrain or the injury requires one.