He was once a frequent visitor to the exclusive Swiss resort of Klosters, often pictured going down the slopes with his sons William and Harry.
But now King Charles III has revealed his skiing days are behind him as he chatted to a Swiss engineer during a trip to a wind turbine factory in Middlesbrough.
The climate-oriented monarch was touring SeAHH Wind, the world’s largest offshore wind turbine base factory, when he made the heartbreaking admission to Avzi Jusufi, a machinery expert from Basel.
Colleague David Croft, from Campbelltown, Argyll and Bute, recalled the King saying to Avzi: ‘I think my skiing days are behind me.’
Charles, now 76, first learned how to ski at the age of 14 and has been taking to the slopes nearly every winter since.
But he cancelled a ski trip in 2023 to ensure he would be fit and healthy for his Coronation at Westminster Abbey that May, with a source noting that an accident would have been ‘disastrous’ ahead of the historic ceremony.
The following year, Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February 2024 and could not travel while he underwent treatment.
As the King has announced his decision to hang up his skis, we take a look at the ups and downs he experienced on the slopes – from the death of his dear friend in an avalanche to breaking up a play-fight between Fergie and Princess Diana.
Charles skis with his eldest son Prince William in Klosters, Switzerland in 2004. Yesterday, the King revealed his ‘skiing days are behind’ him
Charles is caught skiing in amusing disguise – 1980
Often royal family members have an agreement that if they do an official photo call, they will be left alone for the majority of their trip.
But Prince Charles went to far more extreme lengths to avoid the paparazzi and enjoy himself on the slopes by wearing disguises.
In 1980, the royal donned a fake moustache, bulbous nose and wide frame glasses in order to go unnoticed by the photographers.
But the eye-catching look only attracted more attention than if he had gone without it.
Despite being found out, Charles seemed to take the situation in good humour and reportedly told the press ‘the prince would not be coming out today’.
To get their revenge, the photographers Charles tried to fool donned red fez hats with Ruldoph the reindeer-esque noses.
Again, the prince took it well, posing with the photographers and wearing a matching red beanie.
Prince Charles wears a fake moustache, bulbous nose and wide frame glasses in order to go unnoticed by photographers in 1980
To get their revenge, the photographers Charles tried to fool donned red fez hats with Ruldoph the reindeer-esque noses
Charles breaks up a play-fight between Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson – 1987
During the early years of their married lives, Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson, lovingly known as ‘Fergie’, were close friends.
Their tight-knit relationship was captured by paparazzi during a ski holiday in Switzerland in 1987.
During an official photo call, the sisters-in-law were filmed play-flighting on the ski slopes of Klosters.
According to former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole, Diana, wearing a navy ski suit with fluorescent pink and green detailing, decided that the photo call was ‘far too tame’.
She turned to Fergie and said: ‘Let’s have a go’.
Diana then pretended to fall over and the two royal wives proceeded to bang their hips together, attempting to dump the other in the show.
‘This horrified the royal husbands,’ Cole said. ‘And they had to fight hard to stop them, The cameraman loved it.’
Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew would go on ski holidays together in the early years of their marriage
Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson, lovingly known as ‘Fergie’, were close friends
Cameraman Kent Gavin told International Business Times: ‘It upset Charles like you would not believe!’
Prince Charles was clearly not impressed with the women’s behaviour and reportedly remarked: ‘Do you have to do this in front of the cameras?’
He also shot the women a look that ‘clearly communicated’ his feelings, according to body language expert Judi James.
She told the Express: ‘The way Diana pretended to fall over onto her friend during the photo call on the royal skiing holiday prompted a very old-fashioned look from an irritated Prince Charles, who clearly did not share the joke.
‘Since her marriage at 19, she had been made isolated and miserable by her royal life,’ James said of Diana. ‘She had the heart of the public but no one to share that platform with. In many ways, she had been made to grow up too quickly.
‘Fergie’s arrival allowed Diana a chance to act like the normal teenager [and] young woman she had never had the chance to be.’
The charming throwback video of the royal women laughing together – and their husbands looking less than impressed – recently received more than two million views in 72 hours on TikTok.
Sadly their friendship crumbled on a ski holiday years later when Diana was feeling unwell while Fergie was impressing everyone on the slopes with her skills.
The two royal wives bang their hips together, attempting to dump the other in the show
At the time, Charles reportedly said to Diana: ‘Why can’t you be more like Fergie?’
This comment only helped cement Diana’s insecurities that she already had about Fergie.
Diana admitted to her biographer Andrew Morton she got ‘jealous’ of her friend and sister-in-law because all the outdoor pursuits the royals liked, such as skiing and horse riding, seemed to come so easily to her.
The princess reportedly said: ‘I couldn’t understand it, she was actually enjoying herself, whereas I was fighting to survive. I couldn’t understand how she could find it so easy. I thought she would be like me and put her head down and be shy.
‘No, a different kettle of fish altogether and she wooed everybody in this family and did it so well. She left me looking like dirt.’
Charles narrowly avoids death in avalanche but loses his friend – 1988
In 1988, Charles was skiing off piste with his good friend Major Hugh Lindsay and Patricia Palmer-Tomkinson at Klosters – one of Europe’s most dangerous runs – when he narrowly escaped an avalanche.
He managed to jump out of the way to reach a ledge, but the incident killed his good friend Lindsay, a former equerry to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II.
Major Hugh Lindsay (pictured) was equerry to the late Queen Elizabeth II. He died whilst skiing off piste with Charles in 1988
At the time of his death, Hugh’s wife Sarah Lindsay was heavily pregnant with their first child
The front page of the Daily Mail on Friday, March 11, 1988
Lindsay was reportedly pronounced dead on arrival after being airlifted to a hospital in nearby Davos.
Charles helped save the life of Patty by digging her out of the snow and talking to her so she would stay conscious until a helicopter arrived. She broke both legs in the accident.
When Charles was rescued from the slope by another helicopter, he was reportedly ‘visibly distressed’ and ‘weeping,’ according to eyewitnesses that included the pilot.
He later recalled that he had never seen anything so terrifying as the avalanche.
The memory would stick with him as he was seen skiing off piste on Mount Gotschna in 1992 with a new Avalanche Balloon Survival system.
At the time of the avalanche, Diana was in bed with the flu and Fergie had returned to the chalet to join her.
Retelling the tragic day to her biographer Andrew Morton, she said: ‘Both of us were in the chalet and we heard this helicopter go up.
‘I said to her: “There’s been an avalanche,” and she said: “Something’s gone wrong.”‘
Prince Charles, Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana land in the UK after the avalanche
The draped coffin of Major Hugh Lindsay returns to England with Prince Charles
Charles skiing off piste on Mount Gotschna in 1992 with a new Avalanche Balloon Survival system
The royal wives were then informed by royal aide Philip Mackie that ‘one of the party’ had died, but Diana continued: ‘Fergie and I, and we didn’t know who it was.
‘Half an hour later it came through it was a man and then three-quarters of an hour later Charles rang up Fergie to tell her it wasn’t him, it was Hugh. That really turned me inside out.’
Diana went to Hugh’s room to pack his suitcase with the aim of giving his belongings back to his wife Sarah Lindsay who was unable to come on the tragic ski trip as she was heavily pregnant with their first child at the time.
Charles shares a tip for painting the alpine landscape – 1994
Following the avalanche, Charles manage to return to the slopes and re-find his love of the alpine environment.
He was often seen taking to the slopes, not with his skis or snowboard, but with his sketchbook.
The amateur artist would take a flask from his knapsack and pour a little vodka into the water he used to clean his brushes with.
‘It stops it freezing,’ he said.
Prince Charles seen painting on the slopes in Klosters, Switzerland in 1994
Charles slips up in front of the press – 2005
Ahead of his wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles on April 8, 2005, Charles took to the slopes for one last hurrah with his sons Prince William and Prince Harry.
And it was in 2005 in the Swiss Alps that Charles was famously caught on a hot mic criticising then-BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell just eight days before Charles was due to marry Queen Camilla.
As British tabloids labelled the engagement as ‘A Bloody Farce’ and branded Camilla a ‘Town Hall Bride’, the press call gave Harry and William the perfect opportunity to ‘express their enthusiasm for the wedding’, according Tina Brown in her book The Palace Papers.
‘The boys behaved with media-savvy geniality,’ she wrote. ‘Charles asked his sons, “Do I put my arms round you? What do we do?” William suavely said, “Keep smiling.”
‘Asked if he looked forward to being a witness, the Beckhan pin-up gamely answered, “As long as I don’t lose the rings – that’s the one responsibility!’
BBC veteran Witchell then asked Charles how he was feeling about the upcoming wedding which prompted the future monarch to say under his breath: ‘Bloody people. I can’t bear that man. I mean, he is so awful, he really is.’
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the journalist has now explained exactly why Charles was so cross, saying a piece he’d written about a holiday he’d enjoyed with Camilla on a friend’s yacht had sparked the wrath.
King Charles with his arms around Prince William and Prince Harry during the Royal Family’s ski break at Klosters, Switzerland on March 31, 2005
During the press call, William (right) reportedly told his father to ‘keep smiling’
Witchell has admitted he was ‘shocked’ when King Charles called him ‘awful’ during a now-infamous TV interview
He said: ‘I had compared it to holidays taken by a former Prince of Wales [Edward VIII] with his mistress [Wallis Simpson], and I know he really didn’t like that. He was very cross.’
Aides also suggested that Charles was annoyed about William and Kate Middleton – then just the prince’s girlfriend – being photographed the previous day.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the journalist said he had hoped with his question to get Prince Harry and William to ‘endorse the wedding’.
‘But it just went horribly wrong,’ he said.
‘People weren’t in the best of moods that morning. It sounds the most inane and pathetic question really: “How do you feel about the wedding?'”
‘But if you sort of unpack that, as the then Prince of Wales immediately did… I could see that his face was somewhat changing colour.’
Charles initially interrupted before Mr Witchell had finished his question, saying: ‘You’ve heard of it have you?’
William politely said: ‘Very happy, very pleased. It will be a good day.’
