King Charles made an honest admission about his health, ruling himself out of a hobby he had enjoyed for over four decades.
The King is said to have learnt how to ski when he was a teenager, and spent over 45 years visiting the Swiss resort Klosters.
Over the years he has been pictured there with sons Prince Harry and Prince William, sister-in-law Sarah Ferguson, and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
The alpine village, in the heart of the Prättigau area, has been frequented by famous figures such as Audrey Hepburn, Winston Churchill, Bono and Julia Roberts over the years.
However Queen Camilla has not accompanied her husband, because she “doesn’t like heights and doesn’t like the cold”.
Now, on a visit to the SeAH Wind plant in Teesside, the King had a frank admission about his chances of returning to the popular resort and hitting the slopes. It came as he spoke to Swiss wind turbine engineer Avzi Jusufi, reports The Telegraph.
Jusufi’s colleague David Croft, who works at the plant, explained: “The King said: ‘I think my skiing days are behind me’.”
The King would visit Klosters, staying in the luxurious Chalet Eugenia, in February or March. However his 2023 trip was cancelled over fears he would get injured before the coronation, while he was too unwell to travel in 2024 following his cancer diagnosis
The King narrowly avoided injury while skiing on one of Europe’s most dangerous runs in 1988 when he was almost hit by an avalanche on his annual getaway, managing to grab onto a ledge to jump out of the way.
Major Hugh Lindsay, a former equerry to Queen Elizabeth II, was killed during the incident. Another friend, Patty Palmer-Tomkinson, once had to be dug out of the snow, with the King speaking to her until a helicopter could take her for treatment.
In 1980 the King made headlines when he tried to attend his annual trip incognito. The then-prince donned a fake nose, moustache, glasses and a hat to trick the waiting press.
The eye-catching look however probably drew more attention than his traditional attire. It was also on a trip to Klosters in 2005 that he was caught calling BBC journalist Nicholas Witchell “awful”.
During his visit to the SeAH plant, the King was shown a calibration roll machine, which smooths and bends steel sheets into perfect cylinders as part of the manufacturing process. Production manager Paul Martin described the Monarch as “a nice gentleman” after the visit.
He said: “The King apologised for stopping production and dragging us away. You certainly don’t mind on a day like this.”
