Avalanche Run

I've been looking at old park brochures when ever they mentioned Avalanche Run they mentioned it under rides and not under roller coasters: "From the free-falling thrills of Demon Drop to the unique excitement of Avalanche Run, a wheeled bobsled run, rides are our specialty." That quote is from the 1986 brochure under the 'rides' section but not under 'coaster' section. Again in the 1988 brochure it is mentioned under "America's ride park" and not under "The nation's biggest coaster collection." Finally in 1989, the year before it was transformed into Disaster Transport it was not mentioned at all in the brochure. In 1990 there was an advertisement for the new Disaster Transport and since then it has never been mentioned in a brochure. I can understand why it is no longer mentioned because there are many other coasters in the park, but back then before all of these new coasters why wouldn't Avalanche Run be a highlight of the park because it was one of the only 'bobsled' coasters in America?

[Please refer to our comprehensive history section]

*** Edited 1/4/2005 2:01:54 AM UTC by Vince982***
*** Edited 1/4/2005 2:14:24 AM UTC by Walt***

From what I know, Avalanche run, along with many other bobsled coasters lacked popularity. From what I know, they didn't pack as big of a punch as they were expected to. I believe Avalanche run was one of the earlier bobsled coasters, making it less thrilling. Rides like Gemini provided more thrills, so they were advertised.

Maybe back then they didnt put bobsled rides in with coasters. I dont know I never liked Acalanche Run, and Disaster Transport is not one of my fav. rides today.

Oh I realize that Disaster Transport is nothing today compared to newer coasters like TTD or Millennium Force. I've only been on DT once and I didn't like it at all. After I went on it I was reading something about the themeing and how there is supposed to be 3D effects while the coaster train goes throughout the building but when I was on it there were no special effects at all, it just ran along the track through the darkness. To get the 3D effect do you have to but the special glasses?

Nope, only 3-D in line.

Really? I could have sworn I read somewhere, I can't remember where but I will try to find it, that said through out the ride there were 3D simulations of space ships or something crashing and things flying around you as the train went along the track.

It's a rip either way. And in the Getaway Guide last year, it showed people wearin' the glasses on the ride. So, maybe it is made for the queue and ride. Who knows?

-S. Eagle

I've been looking for where I read that and I couldn't find it anywhere, I must be wrong, o well, either way Disaster Transport is a pretty poor ride with or without the glasses.

Anyone know why they enclosed Avalanche Run?

I saw nothing on the ride that had anything to do with 3-D. Of course with spaceships crashing, we must have been on different rides.

Well the glasses do help, but very little. The only thing i noticed was when you go in the room with the stars, they seem to be 3D. Also going up the lift hill was better with the 3D glasses.

I remember the stars being 3D last time I rode it.

Avalanche Run was a victim of the ever ending desire to increase capacity. As I understand it, there was some concern at the Point that the "normal" sized bobsled cars wouldn't hold enough people to keep the lines moving so they opted to increase the length of the "trains" by one or even two rows.

I rode the bobsled ride at Opryland and it was a very good ride. The "trains" really moved up and down in the trough. You didn't see that on Avalanche Run and I suspect it was in large part due to the length of the car.

When Avalanche Run was first announced, I was hoping it would be something like the old Flying Turns at Euclid Beach. Flying Turns was a bobsled ride that was extremely thrilling and it had good capacity.

The ride consisted of trains that had a number of two passenger cars with inline seating coupled together. This thing had some wild ride action, with lots of "S" turns where the cars climbed high up on the track.

I wish someone would do a recreation of the Flying Turns. That ride would be a winner even in the day of 120 mph rocket coasters.
*** Edited 1/4/2005 3:06:47 PM UTC by Pete***

I agree Pete, but if a modern day insurance appraiser saw an old style Flying Turns he'd have a coronary. A free wheeling train with absolutely no control over it once it left the lift just wouldn't "fly" with the underwriters.

Once again CP fell victim to their own desire to become the -est park. They've had a habit of looking at successful rides around the country then going to the designer or manufacturer and saying "We'd like one of those, but for us please make it _____ " (fill in here- highest, fastest, smoothest, longest)

Avalanche Run is a perfect example. They wanted to be able to market the largest, highest capacity bobsled ride, and in my opinion this is a case where it backfired. The larger scale of the drops, turns and vehicles decreased the faster, snappier ride sensations found in the standard Intamin Bobsleds that were popping up everywhere at that time.

Other losers in this category, in my opinion, include Mean Streak, Wicked Twister, White Water Landing. We're fortunate to have quite a few winners, though, such as Raptor, Magnum, Top Thrill Dragster, and of course Millenium Force.

Wicked Twister?!? It's never taken me more than 10 minutes to get on that ride! When I have been there, at least.

Why do you think the cap sucks?

MrScott

CP Mac, I agree with you completely, except for "Other losers in this category, in my opinion, include Mean Streak, Wicked Twister."

Mean Streak is the best wooden coaster I've ever been on, I've only been on a few but it is awesome. They wanted the tallest and fasted wooden coaster and they got it. It may not be the smoothest ride in the world, but it isn't supposed to be, let's face it, wooden roller coasters are rough. It's a great wooden coaster because it's tall, fast, is long, and has many dips and dives.

Wicked Twister is also a very good coaster. Other than occassional down time, it is excellent. The ride gives its riders a big thrill and that't it, because that's all it's supposed to do, it's not like a big coaster like Millennium or Raptor so I think people should realize that it provides its riders a quicker thrill, kind of like TTD and riders should have different expectations for it than other big coasters that provide a rather lengthy ride

*** Edited 1/5/2005 12:02:59 AM UTC by Vince982***

I think he means that the quality of the ride got compromised. However I love WT, it beats the guts out of Steel Venom at GL even without curling both ways.

Fastball84, that's exactly what I meant. In my opinion, however, the GL ride is a little more exciting with the straight return spike, especially with the brake at the top. This to me is a case where once again CP needed to one-up a design that would otherwise have been a clone. The fact CP can claim the world's tallest impulse is a non-starter as far as comparisons go. The difference to the average rider is nominal, I'm sure.

And Vince982, while I respect your opinion, if the Mean Streak is the best woodie you've been on then I'd like to take you out riding someday. It's really a beautiful, imposing ride. The comparison I was making, however, was to the Texas Giant, the obvious fore runner design-wise to Mean Streak. CP must have said to Curtis Summers something like "give us one of those, but please make it bigger, much smoother, and while you're at it make it the world's tallest woodie" The result was a ride that pales in comparison. It may have been the world's tallest woodie, but in his effort to "improve" upon the rough and tumble experience the Giant was notorious for, he left us with a ride that has poor timing, fewer drops, a less complicated profile, zero air, and a rotten ending. And smoother? No, not even smoother, so there ya go.

I disagree about Steel Venom at GL being better than Wicked Twister. As far as I'm concerned, Wicked Twister is the best and most exciting impulse coaster built. Steel Venom, though good, is lacking compared to Wicked Twister.