We always expect great skiing in ski movies, like TGR films or those made by Warren Miller. But today I was reading an account of the ski scene in The Spy Who Loved Me, a James Bond film from 1977, and it blew me away. The jump was actually not done in Austria, where the scene supposedly took place, but in Mount Asgard on Baffin Island in Canada, about 25 miles north of the Arctic Circle. And it was done not by a stunt man or a pro skier, but by a 23-year old amateur named Rick Sylvester. Sylvester had done a similar jump off of El Capitan, which brought him to the attention of the movie's producer. The jump for the movie, however, was 1,000 feet higher than El Cap, and Sylvester had never attempted it before. He had to ditch his skis and launch a parachute during the jump, too, and it's an amazing feat. Anyway, after reading about it, I looked it up on youtube, and holy smoke! More than 40 years later, it's still incredible. Watch it, and you'll see that the wind blew him into a lazy backward somersault, which was an extra, unexpected bonus.
So here, for your enjoyment:
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Anyone have any other ski scenes they'd like to share?
So here, for your enjoyment:
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Anyone have any other ski scenes they'd like to share?
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