Expedition Everest

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Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
Expedition Everest
Location	Disney's Animal Kingdom
Type	Steel
Status	Operating
Opened	April 7, 2006
Manufacturer	Vekoma
Designer	Walt Disney Imagineering
Model	Custom
Track layout	Custom
Lift/launch system	Two chain lift hills
Height	112 ft (34.1 m)
Drop	80 ft (24.4 m)
Length	4400 ft (1341.1 m)
Max speed	50 mph (80.5 km/h)
Inversions	0
Cost	$100,000,000 (estimated by industry observers; not confirmed by Disney)

Expedition Everest

One of the trains ascending the main lift hill

A close up of one of the trains on the main drop

WDI concept art

The exterior of the ride in October 2005

Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain is an elaborately themed roller coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park on the Walt Disney World Resort property in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

1 Background
2 Story
3 Mission Himalayas
4 Times Square publicity stunt
5 Yeti technical details
6 Attraction facts
7 Awards
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Background

Expedition Everest often is compared to the 1959 Matterhorn Bobsleds roller coaster at Disneyland, which features a snowy mountain setting (though much smaller) and a far more primitive "abominable snowman" figure throughout the ride.

Although moderate by contemporary roller coaster standards, Expedition Everest is unique for having its trains travel forward and backward as a result of the yeti's interference with the journey. This is accomplished through two sets of rotating track segments on pivot before and after the backwards segment. In its publicity material, Disney pointedly has described the attraction as a family thrill ride.

Expedition Everest is the tallest of the artificial mountains at Walt Disney World Resort, joining Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Mount Gushmore, Space Mountain and Splash Mountain on the list of Disney-built peaks. According to Imagineering, it is Disney's 18th mountain-themed attraction. If the Expedition Everest mountain were real, it would be ranked fourth on the list of the highest summits in Florida at 320 feet above sea level.

The artificial mountain is not a reproduction of Mount Everest; it is the fictional "forbidden mountain" guarded by the yeti in the attraction story created by Walt Disney Imagineering. Everest is represented by the barren background peak on the far right, which is meant to suggest it is far in the distance (an example of forced perspective). The attraction's conceit is that the roller coaster is a passenger train offering a speedy route through the Himalayas to the base of Mount Everest.

According to Disney, the attraction occupies 6.2 acres in the park's Asia section and the mountain itself is just shy of one acre.

Expedition Everest celebrated its grand opening on April 7, 2006 in ceremonies led by Disney CEO Bob Iger and theme parks chairman Jay Rasulo. It had been operating for invitation-only previews and public soft openings since January 2006. The attraction first was announced publicly on April 22, 2003, during an event to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Disney's Animal Kingdom.

[edit] Story

Walt Disney Imagineering spent six years researching, designing and building Expedition Everest, including many trips to the Himalayas to collect reference material and observations. The resulting attraction is a fictionalized telling of the legend of the yeti, using an imaginary setting created with meticulous re-creations of Himalayan architecture, art and cultural traditions.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Riders approach the attraction through the remote village of Serka Zong in the fictional kingdom of Anandapur, which is located in the foothills of the Himalayas. Several village buildings that had been used by the Royal Anandapur Tea Company have been repurposed by businesses that send trekkers on various expeditions throughout the Himalayas. "Expedition Everest" is the name of a specific trek arranged by the Himalayan Escapes tour company in Serka Zong.

The entrepreneurs behind Himalayan Escapes, Norbu and Bob, have refurbished a steam train that previously had been used to bring harvested tea leaves down from the mountains. It's these trains the Expedition Everest trekkers board on their way to the base camp of Mount Everest, using a shortcut that passes through the "forbidden mountain" thought to be guarded by the yeti. Among local cultures, the yeti is believed to be a fierce protector of the region's most pristine mountains, valleys and forests, and violently opposes man's encroachment in these areas.

As riders wind their way through the attraction's richly detailed standby queue, half of which is climate controlled, the legend of the yeti is communicated vividly through a mandir, a kind of Himalayan shrine to the yeti, and a makeshift museum that documents yeti sightings, its significance in Himalayan cultures and a so-called "lost" expedition that ran afoul of the creature many years before (1982). The shorter FASTPASS queue contains a similar but abbreviated storyline. The queues merge in the enclosed train station behind the loading area.

One of the attraction's highlights is an encounter with a large Audio-Animatronic yeti, which Disney claims is one of the largest and most complex figures it has ever built. Joe Rohde, the lead Imagineer for Expedition Everest, has noted that the yeti featured in the attraction is extremely lifelike and based on extensive research into the cultural legend.

[edit] Mission Himalayas

In 2005, Disney, Discovery Networks and Conservation International conducted real-life expeditions to China and Nepal as part of the promotion for Expedition Everest. The purpose was to conduct scientific and cultural research in remote areas of the Himalayas where the yeti legend exists. Participants included scientists from Conservation International and Disney's Animal Kingdom, as well as Imagineer Joe Rohde.

The expeditions — as well as the making of the attraction — were chronicled in three documentaries broadcast on Discovery's cable television channels in April 2006. Rohde was featured in a Travel Channel program titled "Expedition Everest: Journey to Sacred Lands," which premiered April 9 to coincide with the attraction's grand opening.

[edit] Times Square publicity stunt

On February 15, 2006, Disney staged an elaborate publicity stunt for Expedition Everest in New York City's Times Square, according to a report by radio station WINS:

Dangling from ropes hundreds of feet above Times Square, five acrobatic dancers and one of the world's fastest rock climbers performed cartwheels, flips and gravity-defying leaps Wednesday to promote the opening of a new ride at Walt Disney World.

. . .

Strapped into harnesses and hanging from nylon rope, [Hans] Florine and five other performers from the vertical dance company Project Bandaloop twirled and soared across the face of the billboard, which was done up to look like a mountainside.

The event, known as "Everest in the City", draped large billboards over sides of the several buildings. The billboards depicted Everest with a coaster car careening down the mountainside, with the Yeti looking on from another peak.

The Yeti's eyes on the billboard glowed red, and would flash when people would send the text message "4YETI" to a Disney provided call number from their cell phones.

[edit] Yeti technical details

The complex Yeti character has the following technical details^[1].

The yeti's "skin" measures 1,000 square feet, and is held in place by 1,000 snaps and 250 zippers.
The yeti's movement is controlled by 19 actuators.
The yeti can move five feet horizontally, and two feet vertically.
The yeti is 22 feet tall.

[edit] Attraction facts

Grand opening: April 7, 2006
Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering
Manufacturer: Vekoma
Installed by: Walt Disney Imagineering
Ride system: Roller coaster
Mountain height: 199.5 feet
Maximum ride height: 112 feet
Maximum speed: 50 mph forwards, 40 mph backwards
Track length: 4,424 feet
Largest drop: 80 feet
Inversions: 0
Height restriction: 44 inches
Capacity: Up to five six-car trains of 34 passengers each in 17 two-person rows (the last row features seating for disabled guests); typically four trains are in operation, with a projected throughput of 1,800 riders per hour
Restraint: Individual lap bar
Brake zones: Four; two after the pivoting track segments, one before entering the mountain the final time and one before unload. Technically the brake after the yeti encounter is not considered an official brake zone
Lifts: Two chain lifts
Trackswitches: Weighing in at 2 tons each, they roll and lock in 6 seconds.
Disney's FASTPASS can be utilized at this area.