James Bond Stunt - Rick Sylvester 'Off the Ledge' Mt. Asgard

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the Fet

climber

Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La

Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 15, 2014 - 03:36pm PT

Interesting mini-documentary on the ski base jump off of Mt. Asgard for James Bond The Spy Who Loved Me

[Click to View YouTube Video]

Write up about his first jump off of El Cap

http://www.tetongravity.com/story/ski/hot-dog-the-legacy-the-story-of-the-first-base-jump-in-ski-history

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Aug 15, 2014 - 04:16pm PT

Immortality, of a sorts, but he can still get lost in a bazaar...

mark

climber

san diego, ca

Aug 15, 2014 - 05:16pm PT

thanks for posting...cool to hear story, would have been wild

ground_up

Trad climber

mt. hood /baja

Aug 15, 2014 - 06:11pm PT

Thanks for that reset , love that old skool , before others were doin it
footage. The thought of launching off that stuff bends my mind .

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Aug 15, 2014 - 06:44pm PT

Reilly..where'd you get that shot..? rj

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Aug 15, 2014 - 06:55pm PT

RJ, I thought you've been to the Friday night market in Monrovia?

OK, I see you're not biting - it was the every day market in Samarkand*,
hence, all the terrorist looking types. Oh, but the watermelons there...

*It's just up the road a piece from the Pamirs.

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Aug 15, 2014 - 07:00pm PT

Oh...! I thought it was the Village at Squaw surveilance footage...? rj

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Aug 15, 2014 - 07:57pm PT

hey there say, the fet.... this is a great, yet humble share... thank you very kindly... my daddy sure would have appreciated seeing this interview...

say, rick sylvester, i don't know you, but thank you very kind for
doing this interview... wow and ohmy, just don't quite cover it:

neither does:

whewwwwwwwwwwww....

what a time, in the history of your life...
nice to have learned about all this...
as a kid, i was always wondering about such an entrance
to this movie...

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Aug 15, 2014 - 08:08pm PT

Rick now lives in N. Tahoe and is probably raking pine needles into plastic bags.

Life moves on.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Aug 15, 2014 - 09:22pm PT

Rick's an easy-going guy away from the stress of filming, as you can tell.

He's chock full of stories, too.

Here is another video, comparing the top James Bond stunts. Rick wins, even though he packed his chute incorrectly.
[Click to View YouTube Video]

ms55401

Trad climber

minneapolis, mn

Aug 15, 2014 - 09:26pm PT

super cool

Gunkie

Trad climber

East Coast US

Aug 16, 2014 - 05:51am PT

Love the interview!

Jan

Mountain climber

Colorado, Nepal & Okinawa

Aug 16, 2014 - 08:02am PT

I never saw the original Bond movie so I really appreciated seeing the big jump and the interview this time around.

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Aug 16, 2014 - 08:16am PT

I learned the hard way not to trust the guy, and have heard a number of similar stories.

A shame to my people.

Rick Sylvester

Trad climber

Squaw Valley, California

Aug 16, 2014 - 10:18pm PT

Yeah, the one people shouldn't trust is the one whose nickname, and rightfully so, is "Offensky".

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Aug 16, 2014 - 10:34pm PT

Rick...I trust you ...rj

Rick Sylvester

Trad climber

Squaw Valley, California

Aug 16, 2014 - 11:00pm PT

Thanks so much. And I was just going to write that I loved your post about the Squaw Village surveillance cameras. Obviously you know what's going on in Squaw.

Todd Eastman

climber

Bellingham, WA

Aug 16, 2014 - 11:15pm PT

No way that guy that hurled himself off Asgard could be the same completely rational person I remember doing a marathon every week somewhere on foot or skis!

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Aug 17, 2014 - 10:07am PT

Rick...I don't know about Squaw but rumor has it that it's been designated for future use as a FEMA re-location camp..?

the Fet

climber

Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 17, 2014 - 11:03am PT

Ah.. that explains the squalor.

BASE104

Social climber

An Oil Field

Aug 17, 2014 - 04:52pm PT

I saw a documentary about the Bond films, and they said that this stunt got them really making money again. It blew my mind when I saw it as a kid.

I talked with you Rick in the old Mountain Room Bar. I think it was before I started pillaging the valley cliffs, so that would have been 1980 or so.

I heard that you jumped a Piglet. Correct? Phil Smith had a custom piglet made from F-111 cloth, and we jumped it a lot at a few places in AZ. We jumped rounds from certain objects into the late 80's at least.

Hawkeye

climber

State of Mine

Aug 17, 2014 - 08:02pm PT

I learned the hard way not to trust the guy, and have heard a number of similar stories.

A shame to my people.

ron offensky.

the king of losers. chipper of holds on routes lower than 5.10.

carrier of weapons ( since he is a pussy and has to make up for it in other ways).

measurer of penises (and looser of many contests),

ron, you are a major f*#k up.

stop pretending, you little f*#k.

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Aug 17, 2014 - 08:25pm PT

Well.. What about those leader fall stunts that Sylvester took on those spires in another Bond flick...? Was that in Greece...?

C4/1971

Trad climber

Depends on the day...

Aug 18, 2014 - 05:36pm PT

Having climbed with Rick on several occasions I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. My funniest memory of him is the three jumps he did off El Cap. To the best of my knowledge there were six skis that were never found. I still remember going to the East Auditorium to watch the footage, back and forth, for about two hours. We laughed, we howled, we drank.

And celebrated the insanity of what he did.....

The stories of the three attempts, and the camera footage, it was elegant insanity. From a man who got kicked off ski patrol at Squaw four skiing the chutes before the avalanche guns did their jobs...

And I will never forget the Braille Book in the dark......

micronut

Trad climber

Fresno/Clovis, ca

Aug 18, 2014 - 05:52pm PT

A little piece of Americana right there. Thanks for the video. Fun seeing immortals act mortal. How many of us have been inspired to go make big adventures happen in the mountains because of this clip and other Hollywood ones like it when we were young? Too many to count probably.

Thanks Rick.

Scott

bergbryce

climber

East Bay, CA

Aug 18, 2014 - 06:29pm PT

wow, very cool!

Rankin

Social climber

Greensboro, North Carolina

Aug 18, 2014 - 07:47pm PT

Awesome little film. And that Carly Simon song is fantastic as well. Great effort Rick, really unbelievable.

zBrown

Ice climber

Brujò de la Playa

Aug 18, 2014 - 08:19pm PT

Now here is a guy could run and ski (at the same time? beats me)

Big Mike

Trad climber

Aug 18, 2014 - 08:57pm PT

The stories of the three attempts, and the camera footage, it was elegant insanity. From a man who got kicked off ski patrol at Squaw four skiing the chutes before the avalanche guns did their jobs...

LOL!! the powder's better before they blow it up!! Right Rick?? Lol

rottingjohnny

Sport climber

mammoth lakes ca

Aug 18, 2014 - 09:05pm PT

That Carly Simon song was good indeed...

Stewart Johnson

climber

lake forest

Aug 18, 2014 - 09:24pm PT

Excellent Rick !

Rick Sylvester

Trad climber

Squaw Valley, California

Aug 21, 2014 - 01:15am PT

A FEMA relocation camp, hmmm. But would there be room after all the African Americans the police would surely like to relocate, and surely would if they had their way (and assuming any were still alive) from Fergurson, Missouri, not to mention many other locales in the police state of
Amerika?

Rick Sylvester

Trad climber

Squaw Valley, California

Aug 21, 2014 - 01:31am PT

The climbing sequence of the other Bond film I was fortunate to have gotten to work on, "For Your Eyes Only", was indeed shot in Greece, in the Meteora area. The rock towers there are conglomerate, like the Pinnacles in California, only the formations are a lot larger, taller. That I got fired from Squaw's professional ski patrol would be a good story but perhaps sadly it ain't true. I opted the next year to be an instructor. The other Valley climbers I shared a house with and I were mainly interested in getting a free ski pass via a job that would allow for the most skiing. As far as skis used in the 3 jumps off El Cap. after each of the first 2 jumps I was able to find only one ski. For the third jump I used those 2 skis. So we're talking about a total of 4, not 6, skis. I always thought that would have made a great ad for the ski company, that they'd fallen almost 3000', landing in rocky terrain not snow, but were still usable.

Rick Sylvester

Trad climber

Squaw Valley, California

Aug 21, 2014 - 01:41am PT

OH, yeah, the matter of the chute I used. Piglet, right. Boy, I haven't heard that term used in years. Maybe...or was that just the reserve chute? I was such a novice, still am with only a total of around 80 jumps. Never kept it up. Preferred climbing, skiing, running, et al. a lot more. It was a round, sort of, canopy. Actually it was more triangular shaped, called a Thunderbow, made by a Bay Area -- San Leandro, I think -- company. It never caught on. The most high performance chute of that period was the ParaCommander but it was opined that I was not experienced enough to use it. It was more high performance but also more chance of a malfunction. The Thunderbow was less high performance but like strict round canopies there was less chance of complications. Of course when the rectangular ram air chutes were developed all this became academic.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Aug 21, 2014 - 01:44am PT

When you get the chance, Rick, could you tell us who were your 'accomplices' in the EC jumps.

What, if any, was the reaction of the NPS. This eskipade was kind of in their face, wasn't it?