Breaking News: The King says his skiing days are behind him….See More

Monarch makes revelation about his favoured alpine sport during public engagement in Middlesbrough

The King has admitted that his “skiing days” are behind him.

The monarch, 76, has enjoyed a life-long love of the sport, travelling to the exclusive Swiss resort of Klosters almost every year for some 45 years.

But he revealed during a public engagement in Middlesbrough on Thursday that he had finally hung up his skis.

The King, who was diagnosed with cancer last year and is still undergoing weekly treatment, discussed his favoured alpine sport with a Swiss employee as he toured SeAH Wind, the world’s largest offshore wind turbine base factory.

He told Avzi Jusufi, a machinery expert from Basel: “I think my skiing days are behind me.”

The King learnt to ski when he was 14 and has visited the slopes almost annually ever since.

He became such a regular visitor to Klosters that two cable cars were named after him.

But in 2023, he cancelled his annual winter trip with friends to ensure he was fit and well for his Coronation that May, with a source noting that it would have been “disastrous” to suffer an accident.

A year later, he was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer following a routine procedure for an enlarged prostate.

The revelation came during a joint “away day” in Middlesbrough, where the Queen indulged in a spot of table tennis while her husband received a Valentine’s Day card from a young girl who professed her love for “the best King ever”.

Later, as the Queen moved on to a National Literacy Trust event, the King donned a hard hat and fluorescent jacket to visit the wind turbine factory, where a chat with Mr Jusufi saw him wistfully admit that he was unlikely to return to the slopes.

As a bachelor during the 1970s, the heir to the throne was regularly pictured in Klosters with various friends. In 1978, he visited with girlfriend at the time. Lady Sarah Spencer, three years before proposing to her younger sister, Lady Diana Spencer.

In 1980, as the Prince of Wales, he famously emerged from his chalet wearing a false moustache, nose and glasses to tell the assembled reporters that the Prince would not be coming out that day.

During the early years of their marriage, Charles and Diana made several visits to the Swiss Alps, often with the Duke of York and his wife.

In March 1988, skiing off piste at Klosters on one of Europe’s most dangerous runs, he narrowly escaped an avalanche that killed his good friend Major Hugh Lindsay, a former equerry to Elizabeth II.