How an Avalanche Became a Turning Point for Charles and Diana's Marriage
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Season 4 of The Crown depicts the fatal skiing accident that Prince Charles survived in Klosters, Switzerland.
Major Hugh Lindsay, a close friend of Charles's and an aide to Queen Elizabeth II, was killed in an avalanche.
As we see on the Netflix series, the incident was a turning point in Charles and Diana's marriage.
From the tragedy of Aberfan to the death of Lord Mountbatten, The Crown has followed the royal family's reaction to shocking events. "Avalanche," an episode in season 4 of The Crown, focuses on yet another painful moment: The 1988 loss of Major Hugh Lindsay, a former equerry (aide) to Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Charles's friend, who was killed in an avalanche while skiing in Switzerland. Diana and Charles were with Lindsay at Klosters, the Swiss ski resort, at the time of the accident—but only Charles was on the slope during the avalanche.
According to royal biographers, the incident was also a turning point in Princess Diana and Prince Charles's marriage. Charles's involvement in, and reaction to, the skiing accident further drove them apart. According to Tina Brown in The Diana Chronicles, the tragedy served as a "wedge, not a bridge" for the couple.
“Diana blamed Charles for his recklessness in choosing such a hazardous run," Brown wrote. Royal biographer James Whitaker backed up Brown's sentiment in Diana vs. Charles: Royal Blood Feud, writing, "The day the Klosters avalanche was triggered was the day Diana finally hardened her heart against her husband."
Upon landing in England after their ski trip, the couple immediately separated: Charles returned to their private residence, Highgrove House, and Diana to Kensington Palace to comfort Lindsay's pregnant widow. "The tragedy affected the rest of their lives in several ways, since it appeared to spell the end of any mutual support," housekeeper Wendy Berry wrote in her book, per Brown's biography. This is what you need to know.
The avalanche took place at the Prince's favorite Swiss ski resort.
In March of 1988, Prince Charles and Princess Diana visited Klosters, a high-end ski resort in Switzerland. Charles's first visit to the exclusive Swiss vacation hot-spot was a decade prior, in 1978, on a trip with Princess Diana's sister, Sarah Spencer. The two were romantically linked at the time—but the relationship ended after Sarah spoke to the tabloids soon after returning to England.
Prince Charles recalled the details of the "terrifying" accident in a 1994 documentary.
In the years after that first trip, Charles became an increasingly daring skier. Perhaps that's what convinced him to lead his group off-piste (away from the ski trails) on the Wang run, a demanding path on Gotschnagrat Mountain—home to some of the steepest slopes in the world, per the New York Times.
The route had only been recently reopened following a spat of bad weather, and a regional avalanche warning was still in effect. According to Swiss officials, Charles and his party of five other skiers—his friend, Major Hugh Lindsay; Patti and Charles Palmer-Tomkinson; Klosters guide and ski instructor Bruno Sprecher; and a Swiss police officer—caused the avalanche. At the time of the avalanche, Diana was back at the chalet with Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.
In a 1994 documentary, Charles recalled the "terrifying" moment the avalanche started. "The next thing I heard was Bruno's voice shouting 'Jump.' This vast, roaring mound of snow in vast blocks came crashing down round us. I'd never seen anything so terrifying in my life. A staggering maelstrom," Charles said.
In the avalanche, Patti Palmer-Tomkinson and Hugh Lindsay were both swept over a precipice. Patti survived, but broke both both legs, as The Washington Post wrote. "I sat with her in this hole. When people are unconscious, the great thing is to talk to them, and encourage them. I went on talking to her and said, Patty, it's going to be all right. There's nothing to worry about now. We're going to get you out. Gradually she started to mumble," Charles said in the documentary.
Lindsay was not as lucky. His body was found after a rigorous search, which included Charles and the skiing party. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in Davos, Switzerland, The Guardian wrote.
Diana was a "constant source of strength" for Lindsay's widow.
Clad in mourning gear, Diana greeted Lindsay's wife of two years, Sarah Horsely, when the plane landed. Sarah was seven months pregnant at the time. Sarah later gave birth to a daughter, Alice Rose Lyttelton Lindsay. As Horsley revealed in The Telegraph, Prince Charles became Alice's godfather, and Diana was a "constant source of strength" for her.
"The Princess was fantastic. She used to ring me every Sunday evening. She was a dear friend—someone I could ring up at midnight and say, 'Life is pretty grim,'" Horsley said.
A criminal inquiry determined the Prince and his party caused the avalanche.
In the wake of the accident, a criminal inquiry was opened about whether Charles should face charges for the accident. In 1964, for example, a 21-year-old Olympian skiier in Switzerland was charged with homicide by negligence following the deaths of two other skiiers in his care.
Though Charles and his party caused the avalanche, no one individual could be blamed for Lindsay's death. "Prosecutors said that, by skiing outside official marked runs, the group had assumed a collective risk that excluded any one member from personal responsibility for the accident," AP reported in 1988, at the time of the accident.
Charles returned to Klosters, but Diana never did.
Following the accident, Diana refused to return to Klosters, per Diana: Closely Guarded Mystery, written by Diana's bodyguard Ken Wharfe. Charles, on the other hand, was back the next year. Perhaps a comment during the 1994 documentary demonstrated Charles's ability to get back on the horse, or slope: "You don't just flip into panic when something like that happens. You do what needs to be done," he said. Charles returned to Klosters on vacation with William and Harry over the years.
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