Royal Deaths from Skiing Accidents

compiled by Susan Flantzer

This does not purport to be a complete list. All images are from Wikipedia unless otherwise indicated.

Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

  • Born: April 20, 1936 at Saint Anna Clinic in Rome, Italy
  • Parents: Infante Jaime of Spain, Duke of Segovia (second son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, granddaughter of Queen Victoria) and Emanuela de Dampierre
  • Married: María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco, 2nd Duchess of Franco in 1972
  • Died: January 30, 1989, aged 52, at the Vail Valley Medical Center in Vail, Colorado, USA
  • Buried: Chapel of Saint John the Baptist at the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, Spain
  • Wikipedia: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

A first cousin of King Juan Carlos of Spain, Alfonso had been President of the Spanish Skiing Federation and President of the Spanish Olympic Committee. He traveled to the United States for the 1989 Alpine World Ski Championships which were being held at Beaver Creek Resort, in Beaver Creek, Colorado. His death occurred while he was inspecting the Beaver Creek slopes during the competition with his friend, former Austrian skiing champion Toni Sailer. Alfonso and Sailer went down the slopes together but Sailer stopped when he saw that the cable from which the finish line banner was hanging was too low. Sailer went to warn the others on the slopes of the danger but Alfonso passed Sailer on the left, collided with the low-hanging cable, and suffered severe neck lacerations. Members of the Ski Patrol and emergency personnel attended to Alfonso at the scene, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at Vail Valley Medical Center in Vail, Colorado.

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Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau

  • Born: September 25, 1968 at the University Medical Center Utrecht in Utrecht, the Netherlands
  • Parents: Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Prince Claus of the Netherlands (born Claus von Amsberg)
  • Married: Mabel Wisse Smit in 2004
  • Died: August 12, 2013, aged 44, at Huis ten Bosch, in The Hague, the Netherlands
  • Buried: Dutch Reformed Cemetery in Lage Vuursche, the Netherlands near Drakesteijn Castle where he had spent his childhood
  • Unofficial Royalty: Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau

Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau was the second son of former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Claus von Amsberg, and a younger brother of King Willem-Alexander. On February 17, 2012, while on the royal family’s annual skiing holiday in Lech, Austria, Prince Friso was buried under an avalanche. According to medical reports, he had been buried for 25 minutes, suffered neurological injuries due to the lack of oxygen, and was in a coma. On March 1, 2012, he was moved to Wellington Hospital in London, England nearer to his family’s home. In the summer of 2013, he was declared to be in a minimally conscious state and no longer in need of hospital care. Friso was then moved to Huis ten Bosch Palace, his mother’s residence in The Hague and it was there that he died.

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