As King Charles cancels his ski trip, a look back at the royals' lifelong love of the sport

Just like polo playing is synonymous with the royals, so would it seem is skiing. Although many may not see the news of King Charles cancelling his annual ski trip as unusual, what is striking is that it is the first time he has done this in 45 years.

Since his youth, King Charles has had a love of skiing and in particular with the resort of Klosters in Switzerland.

According to British GQ, “During a high season week you might just catch a glimpse of Johnny Depp, Julia Roberts, the King of Sweden or Prince Charles (now King Charles III) walking the aisles at the local supermarket, but you won’t see a single franchised retail outlet anywhere.”

Although King Charles is passionate about skiing, he is obviously mindful about sustaining possible injuries in the lead up to his coronation.

It is also important to remember that the King lucky not to be physically injured from a skiing accident in 1988.

The King (then Prince Charles) narrowly escaped an avalanche in Klosters in 1988 which sadly skilled Major Hugh Lindsay, the former equerry to the late Queen.

The King had to be airlifted to safety whilst another friend Patricia Palmer-Tomkinson (the mother of the late socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson) was also injured.

According to reports, Sarah Horsley, the widow of Major Lindsay wrote to the creators of Netflix series, The Crown, in 2020 to ask them not to show the accident in season four.

Over the years, King Charles has returned to the Swiss resort with sons Prince William and Prince Harry and posed for photographs with them in 2005.

When Prince William first started dating Kate Middleton, it was in Klosters in 2004 that he was pictured with her for the first time.

The late Princess Diana also regularly went skiing with her family and one particularly poignant moment that struck me in the Netflix docuseries ‘Harry & Meghan’ is the clip which shows Princess Diana asking a paparazzi photographer to leave her family alone on a 1995 ski trip.