Overview
- On August 1 the King hosted the Assynt Mountain Rescue Team at the Castle of Mey and spoke about surviving the 1988 avalanche, according to team leader Ben Dyson quoted in The Times.
- Ben Dyson said the King called the episode "a close thing" and that the memory has stayed with him, framing his remarks as a personal acknowledgement rather than new factual disclosure.
- The avalanche hit on March 10, 1988, above Klosters on Mount Gotschnagrat and swept over an off‑piste party that included then‑Prince Charles.
- Major Hugh Lindsay, a former royal equerry and close friend, was fatally buried and later pronounced dead at a Davos hospital while another party member, Patti Palmer‑Tomkinson, suffered serious leg injuries; contemporaneous reports say Charles, a guide and a Swiss police officer dug to help the victims.
- The King's comments renew public attention to the tragedy and underline the risks mountain rescuers face, a theme kept alive in Princess Diana's memoir and later dramatizations such as The Crown.