An article in the local newspaper El Diario Monta??s (5/1/09) outlines the circumstances and fees for paying for cave rescue. The piece has disappeared off the web site but the gist is

Rescue is free as long as the person has taken account of the weather forecast and is part of a group with permission to cave. If the Protecci?n Civil decides that a person does
not have permission, eg an unauthorised through trip in Cueto-Coventosa and / or has disregarded the weather forecast then at least the following charges are enforced (not sure
how)
1639? per hour for a helicopter
500? for a rescue team for 6 hours then 100? an hour until the rescue finishes
100? for the establishment a rescue base and 50? for each additional hour of use
and there also appears to be 328? an hour charged for manning an "Emergency Station"

That makes this a very valuable link then.

http://www.espeleocantabria.net/enlazadas/permisos.htm

From previous experience they are very good at replying within the week.

Juan said:

The piece has disappeared off the web site

Click to expand...

It's still there if anyone wants the direct link.

http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/20090105/local/cantabria-general/proteccion-civil-cobrara-este-200901051703.html

Not that I am advocating caving without permission, but would the BCA insurance, or indeed the FFS insurance, Snow Card or any of the others pay up if the policy holder was caving illicitly?

And for what it's worth, in this house it is reckoned that if the insurance companies don't have a get out clause to cover this then they're pretty damned incompetent.

That's a good point graham, but I'm fairly sure there's nothing about illicit access in the SnowCard terms which boredom forced me to read last year. I may have subsequently forgotten it. Or else be in some really really small print of the general terms, but it wasn't in the caving specific sections.

Nevertheless, I always treat insurance companies with suspicion: if they can find a way out of stumping up the cash, they will!