King Charles reveals his 1988 brush with death

King Charles recalled his terrifying experience from the 1988 avalanche.

As the mountain rescue team celebrated its 50th anniversary on August 1, King Charles hosted the event and recalled his near fatal expereince from 1988 when he was swept up in an avalanche.

Reportedly, that same incident killed a British military officer, Major Hugh Lindsay, a close friend of the King.

The team leader of the Assynt Mountain Rescue Team revealed to the Times, “[The King] spoke of the near miss he had in that avalanche in the context of the dangers mountains contain.”

“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 [in]to the valuable work we do and the dangers we face,” he further revealed.

According to a BBC report, that deadly incident happened in March 1988 when King Charles was skiing with his group of friends in Switzerland, including the late Major Hugh Lindsay and Patti Palmer Tomkinson, who was seriously injured.

Major Lindsay fell almost 1300 feet down the mountain slope while Patti was left with serious injuries.

Although the king survived without physical injuries, an eyewitness, Marie Griffiths, described him as visibly shaken and deeply sad, “As far as I know he hadn’t been injured. He looked very distressed; somebody said he was crying, but he did walk to the helicopter so he looked uninjured,” she said.