“Because we are far more interested in saving your life than insuring it.”
– Jason Manke, Membership Director, American Alpine Club
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who is Global Rescue and why should I put my life in their hands?
2. What is a “Trailhead Rescue”?
3. If I sign up for Global Rescue’s full membership on top of my AAC benefit will I have the FULL cost of any evacuation (subject to the stated limitations) covered?
4. Do I have to be climbing or ski mountaineering to receive the benefit of the Global Rescue Service?
What activities does it cover, and where do I have to be to receive the service that comes with my AAC benefit?
5. Are there restrictions on elevation with the Global Rescue Service? What happens if I am above 6,000 meters? Are there any areas in which Global Rescue will not provide rescue service?
6. Who would perform my actual rescue?
7. How do I contact Global Rescue?
8. How does this work if I am out of the country?
9. What happens in the event that a call for rescue is placed to local services, rather than Global Rescue? What if a rescue is launched without a call being placed at all?
10. As an AAC member who hasn’t purchased the full Global Rescue membership, I am eligible for the first $5,000 of Global Rescue’s services. Are Global Rescue’s services more costly than local rescue providers, considering overhead or administrative costs?
11. I was rescued 3 weeks ago and did not call Global Rescue. Will Global Rescue pay my bill?
12. Is the American Alpine Club switching to Global Rescue as opposed to Rescue Insurance in order to save money?
Who is Global Rescue and why should I put my life in their hands?
Global Rescue is a domestic and international emergency medical and security evacuation service. We are physicians, paramedics, and military Special Forces personnel who can provide emergency medical and security services to travelers anywhere in the world and bring them back to the hospital they choose in their home country when there is a serious medical problem. The aggregate experience of our top personnel includes decades of service at all levels of Emergency Medical Services, as well as distinguished careers in the Operating Room and military Special Operations.
Our deployable teams are strategically located worldwide and are composed of both civilian and military personnel with the highest levels of training available. Our teams include Critical Care Paramedics, Flight Nurses, and Respiratory Therapists, Military 18-Delta Medics, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps Force Recon Operatives, Army Special Forces, and others selected specifically for their training and experience. We have a network of over 180 fixed and rotary wing aircraft with medical capabilities in 35 countries that we can launch in as little as 90 minutes from the initial call for assistance. Our Global Operations Center (BOC) is located in Boston, Massachusetts, one of the international hubs of medical and technological. The BOC is staffed 24 hours a day by experienced paramedics who can coordinate the logistics of a rescue anywhere in the world.
Furthermore, at Global Rescue, we know mountains. Chris Warner, a member of our Advisory Board, is an internationally known expert climber whose accomplishments include summiting peaks over 19,000 feet more than 100 times, in addition to being only the 7th American to summit K2 without supplemental oxygen. Our rescue teams are comprised of professionals with years of experience in some of the most difficult and dangerous locations on earth and have some of the best search and rescue training available anywhere.
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What is a “Trailhead Rescue”?
A Trailhead Rescue is defined as a rescue and evacuation service for an AAC member who is in the backcountry beyond the start of the trail. Global Rescue will provide, arrange and pay all necessary and ordinary expenses for rescue, air and/or surface transport to the nearest medical facility for AAC members who meet the Evacuation Criteria as listed below. The provision of emergency rescue services shall begin and end at the trailhead. Accidents and injuries that occur en route to the trail shall not be eligible for evacuation or any other emergency services. Services related to searching for Members are not included. GR will provide services and charge you the excess over $5,000 if applicable. A credit card may be required in advance.
In order to meet criteria for an evacuation, victims must (a) be certified by a legally licensed physician to need evacuation due to emergency injury or illness, (b) be certified by mountaineering ranger or the mountain rescue officer in charge to need evacuation to prevent serious imminent bodily harm, injury, or death. If neither of the above people are available, Global Rescue's Operations personnel can certify the evacuation needs to occur due to an illness or injury or to prevent serious imminent bodily harm, injury or death based on your description of events over the phone.
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If I sign up for Global Rescue’s full membership on top of my AAC benefit, will I have the FULL cost of any evacuation covered?
As an AAC member, you have two options. The first is the benefit that comes included with your membership: $5,000 of Global Rescue services (GR absorbs the first $5000 of costs; you pay the rest). When an AAC member chooses the second option and upgrades to the full Global Rescue membership, available either per trip or for an annual term, they are provided with up to $500,000 of rescue and evacuation services and immediate access to the specialists at Johns Hopkins Medicine. For full Global Rescue members, services don't end at the closest clinic to the trailhead -- in fact, members who need to be hospitalized after a rescue can choose to be transported back to their home country hospital of choice. For example, rather than spending a month in the Hospital Regional de Cajamarca in Peru, GR will bring you back home on a medically-equipped aircraft or with a medical team on a commercial flight to be hospitalized close to your friends, family, and own doctors who can provide continuity of care as you recover. Full Global Rescue members also benefit from Global Rescue’s best-in-class medical advisory services, offered in conjunction with their partners at Johns Hopkins Medicine, a top-ranked hospital in the U.S. for the last 17 consecutive years. AAC members get a 5% discount on this upgraded service, with plans starting at $119.
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Do I have to be climbing or ski mountaineering to receive the benefit of the Global Rescue Service? What activities does it cover, and where do I have to be to receive the service that comes with my AAC benefit?
The Global Rescue Service will provide an evacuation to an AAC member doing ANY land and/or mountain-based backcountry activity (anything beyond the trailhead). GR will coordinate a rescue from the time you are beyond the trailhead and/or in the backcountry until the time you return, provided you initiate the rescue by calling GR’s hotline telephone number: 617-459-4200. The additional benefits that come with full GR membership (transport to the hospital of choice; $500,000 of services; medical advisory services from Johns Hopkins) are only applicable once you are more than 160 miles from home. The basic trailhead rescue benefit is available to any AAC member anywhere.
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Are there restrictions on elevation with the Global Rescue Service? What happens if I am above 6,000 meters? Are there any areas in which Global Rescue will not provide rescue service?
There are no elevation limitations with Global Rescue – you can ascend to any elevation you desire. As far as locations of service, there are certain countries - such as Iran and North Korea - where Americans are not allowed to travel and are understandably outside of Global Rescue’s domain. Additionally, due to the increased risk associated with destinations and active war zones on the US State Department’s “Travel Warning List” Global Rescue cannot guarantee services if there is a high chance that the rescue team's lives will be put in danger. Keep in mind, however, that Global Rescue’s teams are comprised of current and former Special Forces personnel who have the finest training and experience working in adverse conditions and have not failed to complete a rescue mission.
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Who would perform my actual rescue?
One of the most important lessons we’ve learned from all of our time in emergency services is the invaluable benefit of local knowledge, especially when it comes to search and rescue. We respect the fact that local rescue teams know their mountains best, and we try to use and coordinate with those assets whenever and wherever we can. We have a carefully vetted database network of virtually every mountain rescue service across the globe, and we know their logistical and jurisdictional capabilities. However, even the best services may be unable to complete a specific rescue mission for a myriad of reasons, and that is why it is so important to have Global Rescue coordinating the entire effort. By coordinating every rescue from our Global Operations Center, we can develop contingency plans to ensure the mission is accomplished swiftly and successfully. In the event the primary rescue provider is unable get to you, because of weather or some other operational issue, we can dispatch the next closest service. And of course, based on the mission requirements, we can send our own deployable rescue teams from the United States or other locations worldwide if the local teams we use are unavailable or need assistance. Our deployable rescue teams are made up of mountaineering and search and rescue specialists from the finest branches of the US military Special Forces and civilian SAR services.
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How do I contact Global Rescue?
The Global Rescue BOC is available 24 hours a day at 1 (617) 459-4200. A toll-free number is available for North American callers, (800) 381-9754. The hotline is staffed 24/7 and is made up of former military special operations personnel and other personnel who are experts at organizing and coordinating extraction efforts in complicated scenarios.
As is the case in any backcountry rescue or evacuation situation, a climber may first have to travel to a place where a rescue phone call or communication can be placed. If the first phone call or rescue communication for some reason does not go to Global Rescue, it is simply important to involve GR as early as possible.
We urge you to make this contact information available to your hiking and climbing partners, friends and family, and expedition outfitters. We also suggest that you store this number in your satellite phone or cell phone, and provide it to your Personal Locator Beacon service provider if you have one.
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How does this work if I am out of the country?
If you are out of the country you should immediately contact GR to expedite the rescue process. Our service is exceptional when it comes to coordinating rescues outside of the U.S. where language barriers and geopolitical concerns may prevent timeliness. If placing an international call will be difficult, be sure to educate your next of kin or emergency contact ahead of time that he or she will need to call the GR rescue hotline number.
Also, it is important to stress to AAC members the essential responsibility of educating yourself on local processes and procedures when climbing internationally. Ahead of time, be sure to know how to dial an international call, and how to even begin communication for a rescue in your specific climbing location. Every country and region can be quite different, and preparing ahead of time will prove worthwhile in an emergency situation.
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What happens in the event that a call for rescue is placed to local services, rather than Global Rescue? What if a rescue is launched without a call being placed at all?
Global Rescue does ask that the first call is placed directly to GR, but understands that there may be times when an AAC member (or someone else on the member's behalf) simply calls the local "911" number first. In those cases, GR needs to be notified as soon as possible, especially while the rescue is still in process. This will allow Global Rescue to provide our full capabilities of logistical support to the mission. GR would be able to offer assistance, contingency planning, medical advising services, hospital notification, and all of the other behind the scenes elements that a successful rescue requires. A family member or companion may also make the call to Global Rescue on the member's behalf. When notified in a timely manner before or during a rescue mission, part of Global Rescue's benefit to the AAC is that GR will absorb the first $5,000 worth of rescue-generated costs.
It is in your best interest to get GR in the loop as early as possible and that may mean educating next of kin, partners and guides by providing them with instructions and the GR number prior to engaging in the activity.
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As an AAC member who hasn’t purchased the full Global Rescue membership, I am eligible for the first $5,000 of Global Rescue’s services. Are Global Rescue’s services more costly than local rescue providers, considering overhead or administrative costs?
Global Rescue is not in the business of "marking up" rescue services. When coordinating a rescue, Global Rescue will charge for the time and effort of deployed staff, but the fee is usually quite nominal compared to the full cost of rescue. Some situations will require a high level of logistics coordination while others may require very little.
It is worth noting that typical fees for rescue operations (on a “fee-for-service” basis) can be quite high, considering the costs of aircraft fuel, medical personnel, etc. If traveling to an area where an evacuation may prove extensive and costly beyond the $5,000 benefit, AAC members are encouraged to take advantage of the 5% discount on a full membership from GR, which provides up to $500,000 of search and rescue, evacuation, and medical advisory services.
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I was rescued 3 weeks ago and did not call Global Rescue. Will Global Rescue pay my bill?
No. Global Rescue is not insurance. We do not have the capability to issue reimbursement checks after the fact. We suggest you contact your health insurance provider to seek reimbursement or payment of bills.
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Is the American Alpine Club switching to Global Rescue as opposed to Rescue Insurance in order to save money?
It actually costs the club more to provide the Global Rescue service to AAC members than it did to provide rescue insurance. The AAC’s goal is to provide a service that gives additional value to members and helps keep the climbing community safer. The club is far more interested in saving your life than insuring it; essentially, we want you to come home alive.
The switch to the new service is designed to benefit the greatest amount of members in complicated situations both domestically and internationally. There may be times where you feel that it is appropriate to supplement this program with additional services (for example, purchasing the upgraded Global Rescue plan), but the AAC thinks that you will find real value in using Global Rescue's services.
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