The King says his skiing days are behind him
The King has admitted that his “skiing days” are behind him.
The monarch, 76, has enjoyed a life-long love of the sport, travelling to the exclusive Swiss resort of Klosters almost every year for some 45 years.
But he revealed during a public engagement in Middlesbrough on Thursday that he had hung up his skis.
The King, who was diagnosed with cancer last year and is still undergoing weekly treatment, discussed his favoured alpine sport with a Swiss employee as he toured SeAH Wind, the world’s largest offshore wind turbine base factory.
He told Avzi Jusufi, a machinery expert from Basel: “I think my skiing days are behind me.”
The King learnt to ski when he was 14 and has visited the slopes almost annually.
He became such a regular visitor to Klosters that two cable cars were named after him.
But in 2023, he cancelled his annual winter trip with friends to ensure he was fit and well for his Coronation that May, with a source noting that it would have been “disastrous” to suffer an accident.
A year later, he was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer following a routine procedure for an enlarged prostate.
The revelation came during a joint “away day” in Middlesbrough, where the Queen indulged in a spot of table tennis while her husband received a Valentine’s Day card from a young girl who professed her love for “the best King ever”.
Later, as the Queen moved on to a National Literacy Trust event, the King donned a hard hat and fluorescent jacket to visit the wind turbine factory, where a chat with Mr Jusufi saw him wistfully admit that he was unlikely to return to the slopes.
As a bachelor during the 1970s, the heir to the throne was regularly pictured in Klosters with various friends. In 1978, he visited with girlfriend at the time, Lady Sarah Spencer, three years before proposing to her younger sister, Lady Diana Spencer.
In 1980, as the Prince of Wales, he famously emerged from his chalet wearing a false moustache, nose and glasses to tell the assembled reporters that the Prince would not be coming out that day.
During the early years of their marriage, Charles and Diana made several visits to the Swiss Alps, often with the Duke of York and his wife.
In March 1988, skiing off piste at Klosters on one of Europe’s most dangerous runs, he narrowly escaped an avalanche that killed his good friend Major Hugh Lindsay, a former equerry to Elizabeth II.
Charles managed to jump out of the way to reach a ledge and helped save the life of another friend – Patty Palmer-Tomkinson – by digging her out of the snow and talking to her to keep her conscious until the helicopter came.
He later said he had never seen anything so terrifying as the avalanche.
In the 1990s, he returned with his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, and was regularly pictured with them skiing and tobogganing on the slopes. In 2002, their trip to Klosters was cut short following the death of the Queen Mother.
In Middlesbrough, the Queen posed for selfies and accepted a bunch of yellow tulips from a young girl before taking an impromptu detour to play a quick game of ping pong, admitting she had played a bit “in my youth”.
The visit marked the next step in the couple’s return to “business as usual” following the King’s cancer diagnosis.
Since returning to public duties last April, he has gradually increased his workload, culminating in a successful state visit to Australia and Samoa in October.
But the New Year has brought with it a new vigour and the King’s diary has been packed with both public and private engagements, meetings and audiences.
The visit to Middlesbrough was the couple’s first joint “away day” for some time.
As has long been the formula for such days, the King and Queen carried out engagements both together and individually before reuniting for a walkabout, shaking hands, collecting flowers and smiling before a sea of mobile phones.
The King made centenarian Rona Grafton’s day after personally presenting her with her 100th birthday card.
As he bent down to shake her hand, he said: “A very, very happy birthday. Here’s a card from both of us.”
