house on fire: whataya take as you run away?

[Distel32]

I'd take a

[boatskiclimbsail]

All my gear is insured, all my data (with scans of most of my important or family photos) is backed up online... I'd grab my horn and my car keys.

[lummox]

boatskiclimbsail said:

I'd grab my horn

[catbirdseat]

So has everyone documented what climbing gear they own? Do you go on memory alone? How do you prove to the insurance company what you actually had? There might be a half melted residue of a camalot, but cloth items would be incinerated.

[lummox]

catbirdseat said:

So has everyone documented what climbing gear they own? Do you go on memory alone? How do you prove to the insurance company what you actually had? There might be a half melted residue of a camalot, but cloth items would be incinerated.

but im out the door with my gear.

seriously. one time when my car was broken into i just made a list and the insurance company accepted it. lost a rack of draws and rope and harness and shoes. funny thing: i was honest.

[Alpinfox]

I bet Erik and Trask can tell us the details, but I believe the insurance companies trust you to remember what you had and make a list. You can't be expected to have notarized photographs with reciepts for everything you have ever bought.

 

Since I live with housemates, I would make sure they were all getting out of the house and then I would grab:

wallet, keys, computer, photos, CDs (I have hundreds and hundreds), my one little accordian file of important papers, and my guitar. To hell with the climbing gear, I'm tired of that hobby anyway .

 

I'd probably grab my rasta bivy kit too...

[JayB]

catbirdseat said:

So has everyone documented what climbing gear they own? Do you go on memory alone? How do you prove to the insurance company what you actually had? There might be a half melted residue of a camalot, but cloth items would be incinerated.

 

Entered it all into a spreadsheet a couple of months ago. I'm going to take low res-photos of the stuff with the digital camera, burn it onto a few CD's, and keep both the pics on the spreadsheet in a couple of places that won't be toasted if the rest of my stuff burns....

[Alpinfox]

 

JayB,

Maybe you should invite your climbing partner over and photograph their stuff too!

 

The photographing thing is a good idea, but I don't think (or hope) it's necessary.

[boatskiclimbsail]

Receipts are how they know; that's what should be in your fireproof safe. I dated a girl for awhile who's father was an insurance investigator. He and I made up a scheme for documenting the gear collection. Everything valuable is indexed in a spreadsheet and keyed to photographs with me in them. All of this is backed up online as well as on CD. Only took an afternoon and a few hours here and there when I update it. The other cool thing about insurance is that it is all replacement value so all those good deals you got just got better Disadvantage is that you have shiny new gear again. New gear is so un-hardcore.

 

...and the horn refers to a trumpet, something that 'can' be replaced but won't have a chance of sounding the same. It took me 8 months to find a sound I liked. What was I thinking posting that to this group

[Ursa_Eagle]

boatskiclimbsail said:

What was I thinking posting that to this group

 

pretend you're talking to the hockey players at your school... (if they're anything like they were at mine)

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

When DFA's car got stolen several years ago (full of gear from a recent trip -- dumbass), the insurance co. only required receipts for items over $200 in value. Having none, the solution was to simply report a few extra things in the sub-$200 range to make up for the difference.

[David_Parker]

catbirdseat said:

So has everyone documented what climbing gear they own? Do you go on memory alone? How do you prove to the insurance company what you actually had? There might be a half melted residue of a camalot, but cloth items would be incinerated.

 

As far as climbing gear goes, I just went through a claim and you'd be amazed at what you remember! Still, I've been meaning to video tape my whole house and store it somewhere else like at work. No way I'd remember all the shit that is in my house and it's 100 years old so would go up in a flash. I have fire extinguiser on each floor, have drilled my kid how to get out of his bedroom and have important docs in a fireproof box. Fire is scary and smoke is even scarier.

 

 

[sobo]

catbirdseat said:

So has everyone documented what climbing gear they own? Do you go on memory alone? How do you prove to the insurance company what you actually had? There might be a half melted residue of a camalot, but cloth items would be incinerated.

 

I've had numerous discussions over the years with my agent as my cache of *stuff* has grown. One of the first things we discussed was replacement of my climbing, backpacking, and caving gear. The way it would work for me thru State Farm is that I've provided a general list of stuff that formed the basis of the premium (gear, clothes, furniture, electronics, etc.) that insures that shit for full replacement value. As I add large chunks of new stuff, the list gets revised every few years and the premium adjusted for new shit, retired old shit, and inflation. It never really changes except by a few $$ this way or that, I don't hafta spend a lot of effort on lists and such, and everything gets replaced with new stuff.

 

Like fer instance, clothing is currently estimated at $10k, recreational gear (all of it) is around $8k, electronics, etc.