The Tragedy on a Royal Ski Trip
Anniversary of an Avalanche: When Charles Raced to Save Buried Friend
Thirty-five years ago this month, one of the most alarming, and ultimately tragic news stories involving King Charles, broke in a small village in Switzerland.
It was before mobile phones and Twitter. The breaking news and initial press frenzy erupted in Klosters, the ski destination of choice for King Charles since 1978. It slowly spread around the world, as reporters phoned their news desks, letting their newsrooms know that something had gone horribly wrong.
It was Thursday, March 10th, 1988. Then Prince Charles, Princess Diana, and The Duchess of York, were in Klosters for a week of skiing with a small group of friends. Just before 3pm, Prince Charles set out with the group for a more difficult slope.
The Prince was joined by Major Hugh Lindsay (friend and former equerry to the late Queen), Charlie and Patti Palmer-Tomkinson, (longtime friends of King Charles) as well as a Swiss police officer and a ski guide. They were a skilled group of skiers. Diana and Sarah Ferguson stayed at the hotel, Sarah was 14-weeks pregnant with her first child and recovering from a fall earlier in the day.
According to a statement from Buckingham Palace, The Royal party had not started skiing yet, but were “stationary” when the avalanche started above them. They reportedly heard a massive roar. Charles later said, 'I've never forgotten the sound of it, the whole mountain apparently exploding outwards.'
His instructor yelled, JUMP! and the Prince instinctively did, making it to another ledge.
But Major Lindsay and Mrs. Palmer-Tomkinson couldn’t get out of the way and were knocked more than 400 feet down the mountain, before being buried by the avalanche of snow.
Major Lindsay fractured his skull and was killed in the fall, Mrs. Palmer-Tomkinson was buried, barely alive, and with multiple broken bones.
The guide and officer immediately sprung to action and radioed for help, and the news started to break in the village below: Avalanche!
Remembering that day, Royal correspondent Richard Kay wrote that the noise of a rescue helicopter was their first alert that something had gone wrong:
“It is hard to describe the frenzy among the journalists who had descended on the alpine village — In those days, long before mobile phones or social media, the wait for information seemed interminable. I was among the reporters in Klosters desperately waiting for details of what had happened and to whom.
The world held its breath, wondering whether the unthinkable had happened and the heir to the British throne was among the casualties.”
Back at the hotel, the press secretary for The Prince of Wales was also desperately trying to get information. Kay wrote that the secretary told Diana and Sarah, all he knew was that there had been an accident, and one person, a man, was dead.
But perhaps the most heartbreaking moment was happening back in London. Major Lindsay’s wife, Sarah, was pregnant with their first child and was working in the Buckingham Palace press office. She was actually fielding the sudden deluge of calls about the avalanche, before learning of her husband’s death.
Major Lindsay was found dead under the snow. Patti Palmer-Tomkinson was buried under several feet, and the party dug frantically to get her out. The guide gave Prince Charles a shovel, but instead he went to his knees and began digging with his bare hands, afraid that the shovel might hurt her.
When they finally got to her, she was blue, and unconscious, but Kay wrote that Charles knew he had to keep talking to her:
“The Prince remembered that when Patricia Brabourne's life was in the balance after the IRA bomb that killed Earl Mountbatten, it was the sound of the doctors talking at her bedside which she believed had saved her.
Charles recalled: 'When people are unconscious, the great thing is to talk to them, and encourage them. I went on talking and said: 'Patti, it's going to be all right. There's nothing to worry about. We're going to get you out. Gradually, she started to mumble.'
Charles did not stop talking until Mrs. Palmer-Tomkinson was safely inside the helicopter for the flight to Davos hospital.”
According to news reports, Palmer-Tomkinson required “seven operations and months in hospital to fix her broken limbs, which needed 40 screws and six metal plates in her legs before she could walk again.”
Charles, Diana, Sarah, and the rest of the party, escorted Major Lindsay’s body home to England the next day.
Kay said that Diana never returned to Klosters after that, but King Charles and the Palmer-Tomkinsons felt they had to return for Hugh, saying, “they felt they could never go anywhere else.”
The tragedy of that ski trip, 35 years ago this past week, was, of course, used by producers of The Crown, despite pleas from Major Lindsay’s widow, Sarah. She was “horrified” by the TV storyline, which tried to connect the avalanche to the Wales marriage, and she urged them not to dramatise her husband’s devastating death.
Her pleas were ignored by producers.
Despite the presence of her husband’s very famous Royal friends that day, Sarah reminded the world that, quite simply, “for me, it is a very private tragedy.”
News coverage from that day in 1988 is here: Prince in fatal ski incident | Monarchy | The Guardian
Many do not realize what a staunch and true man the King is. He cares deeply about family and friends, with tragedy and personal loss part of the shaping of his tenacity and character. He is a caring and thinking man.
Thank you for the sensitively written story. For those of us who like King Charles, and even for those of us on the fence, it’s good to read stories that give us an insight into his experiences, that have probably shaped who he is and why he is.