originally posted on 8/6/2021 2:48:06 PM
Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, has announced a new roller coaster for the summer of 2022. Defiance will straddle Iron Mountain, some 1,300 feet above the town and the Colorado River, and will feature a 110-foot freefall drop at a beyond-vertical 102.3 degrees.
Photo: Gerstlauer Amusement Rides
Defiance will capitalize on Glenwood Caverns’ unique mountaintop location and provide new ways to experience its spectacular vistas. According to Gerstlauer Amusement Rides, the German-based company that will manufacture the custom Euro-Fighter coaster, Defiance will begin with a climb up a 75-foot vertical lift hill and a momentary slow to a crawl at its apex for what it has dubbed a “panorama stall”– at 7,132 feet above sea level.
The eight-passenger trains will almost immediately plummet down the beyond-vertical drop, falling 110 feet into a ravine. Unlike most beyond-vertical coasters, which include either holding brakes to stop the train or trim brakes to slow it down, Defiance will have a true, gravity-driven freefall drop. Helping to ensure what will surely be a unique ride experience, the seats will forego over-the-shoulder restraints and only use ratcheting lap bars.
Photo: Gerstlauer Amusement Rides
After dropping and reaching speeds up to 56 mph, passengers will brave a twisted top hat that will invert them before sending the train racing in a different direction, a banana roll that will flip them yet again and a final zero-G roll that will toss them while simultaneously sending them rising through the element. Less than a minute after they began their mountaintop journey, the riders will return to the station.
Installation is scheduled to begin in the early spring for a summer opening.
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