King Charles' deadly avalanche escape heightened his awareness of life's 'fragility': expert

King Charles narrowly escaped death — and Britain's royal future almost changed forever.

The monarch recently opened up about escaping a 1988 avalanche that killed his close friend, Major Hugh Lindsay, an equerry to Queen Elizabeth II, and seriously injured Patti Palmer-Tomkinson.

The 77-year-old held a special event at the Castle of Mey for members of the Assynt Mountain Rescue Team to mark the group's 50th anniversary, The Times of London reported.

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"Those close to the king have always shared that the event increased his sense of mortality and awareness, overall, of the fragility of life," British royals expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital. "... The avalanche and its outcomes were confirmations that even with his position in the royal family, he was not immune from tragedy."

"[The king] spoke of the near miss he had in that avalanche in the context of the dangers mountains contain," team leader Ben Dyson told The Times. "He said 'it was a close thing.' Obviously, after all these years, it is still much in his memory, but it had given him an insight into the valuable work we do and the dangers we face."

Dyson noted that Charles was "very appreciative" of the work that mountain rescue teams carry out.

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"Charles has lived his entire life knowing that one day he would become king," Kinsey Schofield, host of YouTube’s "Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered" told Fox News Digital.

"The avalanche presented him with the opposite possibility, that he might never become king at all. He survived by seconds. ... I think an experience like that inevitably changes your understanding of how fragile even the most carefully predetermined life can be. ... There is something very poignant about hearing a 77-year-old king reflect on a moment at 39 when he very nearly lost his life."

The BBC reported that the incident occurred on March 10, 1988, while Charles and his companions were skiing off-piste above his favorite Swiss resort of Klosters. Lindsay was sent 1,312 feet down the mountainside when the avalanche hit the royal party. Palmer-Tomkinson suffered serious leg injuries. The then-prince and several other members of the group, including their guide, were able to ski to safety.

Once the avalanche passed, Charles and the others rushed to help. Charles later recalled that their guide, Bruno Sprecher, located Palmer-Tomkinson, revived her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and then handed Charles a shovel to help dig her out; Charles also used his hands. Sprecher then went to find Lindsay, who had been killed.

At the time, Marie Griffiths told the BBC she saw Charles being airlifted off the mountain.

"As far as I know, he hadn't been injured," she said. "He looked very distressed; somebody said he was crying, but he did walk to the helicopter, so he looked uninjured."

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Christopher Andersen, author of "Kate!," told Fox News Digital that Charles later reflected, "I've never forgotten the sound of it. The whole mountain exploding outwards — vast clouds of snow. A whirling maelstrom. I thought to myself, 'My God, the horror.'"

"Charles and his friends ignored the danger and went off to tackle an infamous slope that was off the beaten path," Andersen explained. "... The resulting avalanche slammed into Patti Palmer-Tomkinson and Hugh Lindsay. Lindsay was killed instantly, but the king helped dig Palmer-Tomkinson out of the snow and kept her conscious by telling her that a rescue helicopter was on its way. ... People forget King Charles had a career in the Navy, was a military pilot, and was extremely athletic his entire life. Obviously, his reflexes kicked in."

Swiss officials had warned of avalanche danger that day. A later Swiss investigation found that the group was skiing outside the marked area but concluded that the skiers were not culpable for Lindsay's death.

Charles said in an account released after the accident that he and several others managed to ski out of the avalanche's path, while Lindsay and Palmer-Tomkinson were swept away. He said Lindsay had been "killed outright during the fall." Charles also described helping dig Palmer-Tomkinson from the snow and staying with her during the rescue effort.

"The constitutional what-if is staggering," said Schofield. "Had Charles died in that avalanche, five-year-old Prince William would immediately have become heir to the throne. Princess Diana would have been a 26-year-old widow raising the future king, and Queen Elizabeth would have spent the remainder of her reign preparing her grandson rather than her son to succeed her."

"That is what makes Charles saying, 'It was a close thing' so chilling in retrospect," Schofield said. "It was a close thing personally, but constitutionally it was enormous. The U.K. and Commonwealth came frighteningly close to having a five-year-old second in line suddenly become heir apparent and the entire trajectory of the modern monarchy being rewritten."

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Lindsay's wife, Sarah, who worked in the Buckingham Palace press office, was six months pregnant when she learned of her husband's death.

"Within hours, Charles called Sarah and described what had happened," said Andersen. "Diana later said her 'blood ran cold' at Charles' lack of emotion. 

"After Lindsay's daughter Alice was born, Charles became her godfather and kept his promise to pay for her education. ... But it was Diana who came to Sarah Lindsay's emotional rescue, calling her every Sunday to cheer her up."

Charles later returned to ski at Klosters, including with his sons. Contemporary reports said he returned to the avalanche site at least twice to reflect alone.

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"Charles may have been shaken up by the catastrophe that took his close friend's life, but in true British stiff upper lip tradition he didn't really show it at the time," Andersen said. "Charles has always been, to some extent, emotionally strangled. I think it has taken years for him to come to terms with his friend's death and his own narrow escape."

Diana and Sarah Ferguson, then the Duchess of York, were at their chalet when the avalanche hit. While Diana later questioned Charles' response to the tragedy, Schofield said Charles privately grappled with remorse.

"I suspect there was an element of survivor's guilt that was difficult for Charles to process," she said. "He escaped, his friend died, and another friend was seriously injured. He reportedly felt a sense of responsibility afterward. Those are enormously complicated emotions for anyone, regardless of whether you happen to be the future king."

"We often see the king through the formality of monarchy, but there was nothing formal about what happened on that mountain. Charles narrowly escaped being swept away himself and then participated in the desperate effort to rescue the people who hadn't."

In February 2025, the king, who continues to receive treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, said his skiing days were behind him during a visit to Teesside.

"I think my skiing days are behind me," he told a Swiss engineer he met, according to Hello! magazine.