originally posted on 8/19/2024
All renderings: Courtesy Canada’s Wonderland. View full-sized image.
One of Canada’s top national secrets became public early in the morning on August 8, as the country’s coaster capital, Canada’s Wonderland (Vaughan, Ontario), released the details of its 19th roller coaster. Opening in 2025, AlpenFury will be the tallest, fastest and longest launched coaster in Canada, with an impressive nine inversions, giving it the most of any launch coaster in North America.
The new Premier Rides dual launch coaster will have neutral track colors to help it blend in with its surroundings and will stretch across much of the park, starting in the Alpen Festival area and launching out of the top of the mountain into the Grande World Expo area near the park’s entrance gate. The ride’s backstory pays homage to the history of the park, its iconic mountain and the Xtreme Skyflyer attraction, which left the park earlier this year to make way for AlpenFury’s track.
What’s the backstory? The villagers at the base of Wonder Mountain closed the climbing trails decades ago (the walkway trails were an opening attraction before closing in 1986) after tales began to spread that it had become home to beasts and mystical forces (such as Herman in Thunder Run and Ormaar in Wonder Mountain’s Guardian). One legend holds that at the mountain’s core, fire and ice come together in their most raw, elemental states to create a powerful natural force that is both terrifying and awe-inspiring.
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As the train departs the Sled Haus in Alpen Festival next to Fly, it will enter its first launch sequence into a journey into the mountain. Then, it will move through the second 50-foot launch to exit Wonder Mountain near its peak at 71.5 mph (115 kph), traveling along the back of International Street toward the front of the park before returning back to the station.
There will be three unique elements to the coaster, including the Fire Serpent Roll, Skyflyer Loop and Ice Winder Roll. The Fire Serpent Roll is a distant relation to the Sea Serpent Roll, twisting and inverting riders through weightlessness and two unparalleled train-to-track near-miss interactions in a single element. The Skyflyer Loop pays homage to the park’s former attraction and will feature an ascending helix that crests into a zero-G stall before diving into an inverting, descending roll. The Ice Winder Roll will twist and then untwist riders in two inversions as they ascend and descend through an overbanked hill.
On its way back to the station, riders will take a trip around the back of the mountain, interacting with Vortex, the park’s Arrow Dynamics suspended coaster. This is expected to be one of the coaster’s most dramatic moments when the AlpenFury train inverts riders who will find themselves looking down at the Vortex drop as its train races by below.
With a track length of 3,280 feet (1,000 meters), two trains with a capacity of 18 riders each and a total duration of 1:20 minutes, AlpenFury will fill a gap in the park’s coaster lineup. It will be a treasured addition for those who fondly remember the days of the walkway and will build new mountain memories for those who ride it.
— Chris Stewart
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