This is by far the sickest ski segment of all time and it was filmed in 1976…
James Bond, AKA Rick Sylvester of Squaw Valley, CA, skis a perfect powder slope while being chased by bad guys, charges through glacier caves, skis switch, throws a backflip 540º, kills a bad guy, then does one of the first ever ski BASE jumps in history and it’s HUGE!!!!
Check out how long it takes him to get the skis off in the air then the flip he does before he starts tracking – and it seems like forever before he pulls the chute – and it’s the Union Jack and the music hits and the impact is enormous…  Simply unreal.  Rick is credited with the first ever ski BASE jump in January 1972 off El Capitan in Yosemite, CA.
Rick Sylvester, you’re a legend.
Rick has one of the sickest illegal lines at Squaw Valley named after him and it only sees tracks on the best days of the best years in California.
Rick Sylvester Info:
Rick Sylvester (Born April 3, 1942) is a climber and was a Hollywood stuntman, most famous for his BASE jump using skis and a Union Flag parachute from Canada’s Mount Asgard for the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me in July 1976. In 1971, he skied off the top of El Capitan and descended approximately 914 metres (3000 feet) by parachute. This was conceived as “the world’s greatest ski jump”. There were two more jumps made in secrecy to avoid arrest by the National Park Service; Rick wanted more footage shot from different angles. These jumps were made in 1972 and 1973. Already an expert skier, he spent 3 weeks learning sky diving to make this jump. Sylvester also worked in another Bond film, For Your Eyes Only, where he did the stunt when Bond falls off the side of a mountain he is climbing in Meteora, Greece.” – Wikipedia
Definite LEGEND……that guy……Hi Rick
Still kicking??
Fellow wrestler
Al Chen
Sometime during the late 1970’s in England I watched a movie set in the European Alps about a Bond-like character and the bad guys trying to eliminate him. In mid movie, not at the beginning, the hero is skiing down a steep snow trail in a forest followed by the bad guys, and flies off a precipice. The next view shows the hero descending by a parachute that is not a Union Jack flag and in the background are the tall walls of Mt. Frigga, which is located on Baffin Island adjacent to Mt. Asgard. I am certain of the indentification of Frigga because I have camped below these walls both in 1963 and 1965 before climbing the adjacent Mt. Asgard. What wa s this movie? Was it based on Sylvester’s El Capitan jump like the ads for Canadian Club whiskey?
Don Morton
The BEST opening of a James Bond ever. Nothing will ever touch it. Saw it the other night and thought this guy has a lot of B—-s. They couldn’t pay me enough to this stuff. Congrats. Best ever/
Watching this movie now and I remember the impact of this opening. It is real, no cgi and nothing has ever come close to this since. Thank you for your wonderful contribution and bravery .
The comments are essentially right. I did only (sic) the skiBASE portion of the sequence. I could have done all of the ski chase but for the mobius flip — well, I may have done a few of those but they were unintentional portions of ski falls. It appears one of the skis did hit the deploying chute and then glanced off. Although it looked risky the chute opens with such force that it probably was unlikely that this could have caused a serious problem. Also, the Wikipedia entry is incorrect in stating that I was a Hollywood stuntman prior to the two Bond stunts I performed. My athletic background included merely high school second string B football, amateur freestyle wrestling, climbing, skiing, distance running, snow shoveling and novice skydiving.
Rick…… modesty will get u nowhere !! In 1976, this was .. as Trump would say ::)) … HUgE !!. ….. and the skill and timing of the jumps was .. and still is …..still hugely impressive.
Athletic ? ….. how about close to 120 marathons, ski and mountain climbing expeditions al over the world…. etc etc
And intelligence to match .
Watching this movie now and I remember the impact of this opening. It is real, no cgi and nothing has ever come close to this since. Thank you for your wonderful contribution and bravery .
does it look like that ski almost got into the chute? Rick rides with an angel on his shoulder.
yeah, Rick, you are the man! climbers seem to make awesome skiers, so at home in the steeps.
I believe the switch flip and some other segments were done by Robert Young and Ed Lincoln…John Eaves did some as well…the base jump was all Sylvester
ed lincoln? the mobius flip!