Prince revisits scene of death

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 11

Prince revisits scene of death

NZPA-PA Klosters The Prince of Wales went ski-ing yesterday on the mountain where his friend, Major Hugh Lindsay, was killed by an avalanche but he avoided the scene of the tragedy. His party’s 90-minute visit to the slopes above Klosters in Switzerland included some time offpiste, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said. But he denied reports the prince ignored expert warnings of avalanches to venture on to the Drostobel, within 500 m of the spot where Major Lindsay died last March. The Drostobel, a precipitous run on the Gotschnagrat mountain, is officially closed. “The slope he was on was not closed,” the spokesman said. “No risks were taken.” He said the prince and his party skied on the much easier Casanna run, which was nowhere near . the site of last year’s avalanche.

He denied the royal skier stopped to gaze at the site of the avalanche,

which seriously injured another of his friends, Patti Palmer-Tomkinson, and narrowly missed Prince Charles himself.

“He stopped as any skier would to catch his breath for a moment,” the spokesman said. He said that the prince could not have seen the spot from where he was on the Casanna.

The Casanna is a popular red run which takes a long sweeping route down from above the Gotschnagrat to the village below. But Boris Nizon, a Swiss photographer and accomplished skier who followed the royal party down, said: “It was a black run off-piste on the Drostobel.”

Referring to when the prince stopped, he said: “He stood for some time looking down to the right which is the area where the avalanche happened.”

It is understood the prince was trying out new skis.

The royal party skied down to a road where they were collected by car for the journey back to their Klosters hotel.