Prince Charles Back Skiing a Year After Fatal Avalanche

KLOSTERS, Switzerland (AP) _ Prince Charles began a Swiss skiing vacation Monday and passed the site of an avalanche that killed one of his close friends and seriously injured another a year ago.

Shortly after arrival in this alpine resort, the prince’s group rode a cable car up the same mountain where the snowslide struck March 10, 1988. He hardly appeared to look when the cabin passed near the spot.

The party skied down the Gotschna mountain south of the accident site.

Authorities listed a moderate avalanche danger for the region.

The heir to the British throne was accompanied by Charles Palmer-Tomkinson, who was skiing with the prince when the avalanche struck and whose wife, Patricia, suffered broken legs.

Also along for the run Monday were Charles’ ski teacher Bruno Sprecher and a Swiss policeman.

Charles, 40, is expected to spend the week at the royal family’s traditional winter holiday resort. Princess Diana was not among the party.

Charles narrowly escaped injury in last year’s avalanche, which roared down on a group of skiers he was leading on a steep run off marked trails.

His friend Maj. Hugh Lindsay, 34, was killed. Mrs. Palmer-Tomkinson suffered multiple fractures of both legs and was hospitalized for weeks.

Diana and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, were in a chalet at the time of the tragedy.

Charles had returned to Klosters after the avalanche to visit Mrs. Palmer- Tomkinson.

Swiss authorities ruled that Charles’ six-member group caused the avalanche but nobody could be held personally responsible.