‘You can float a little bit': Inside (and upside down nine times) Canada's Wonderland's new ride

Hamilton Spectator

3 days ago

I was strapped into a seat, flung upside down and propelled across a kilometre of track zipping along on the new launch coaster at Canada's Wonderland — a heart-pounding, gravity defying blast of force.
AlpenFury, the latest addition to the park, is the country's longest, tallest and fastest launch coaster and has the most inversions for this style of ride in the world, according to Canada's Wonderland. To check it out, the Star sent a team — photographer Michelle Mengsu Chang and me — and it was a wildly exhilarating experience. To prepare I did a deep dive online and people were posting about being astonished to find themselves upside down, without feeling upside down.
As soon as we were buckled up, Michelle frantically announced to me she had not been on a roller-coaster since she was 18. Right about the same time I started to worry my shoulders wouldn't have enough room to feel comfortable, but that actually helped me feel steady and in place once we got moving.
Once seated and rolling, riders are treated to a couple of seconds travelling at a leisurely pace with a great view of the park down below and the coaster track weaving through the air and then, you're squared up with the mountain.
Just breathe and don't let go.
In one instant I was admiring the view and the next, seemingly without warning I felt a rush of propulsion behind me, instinctively, my eyes shut and all I could hear was the wind rushing ... and Michelle screaming beside me.
AlpenFury, the 18th coaster at the 300-acre theme park in Vaughan, uses two parts of the track to launch from, giving riders an extra boost, so instead of feeling like you are being pulled along the track, you are being pushed from behind and the intensity from the boost is thrilling.
As we entered the base of the mountain, darkness took hold — it was hard to see and even harder to be sure of what way was up and what way was down. AlpenFury's second launch hooked us at the bottom of the mountain and shot us vertically, 50 metres high through the centre of it — we found ourselves hurtled across the length of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, in only two-and-a-half seconds, and shot up out through the top.
Star journalists Michelle Mengsu Chang and Reagan McSwain test ride the new Canada's Wonderland rollercoaster
AlpenFury.
Unlike traditional roller-coasters that rely on lift-hills to accelerate and gain speed, launch coasters use machinery to propel riders at high speeds quickly, and on this ride you can't help but feel the force as you zigzag across the one-kilometre track that crosses over a large part of the park.
During the ride we were dipping and twirling through the air at speeds of 115 kilometres an hour and were upside down a total of nine times — but the details on when and where are fuzzy. The ride offers unique turns throughout that lean at angles that seem to keep one soaring, constantly moving without one second of rest throughout the 80-second ride.
Whenever I managed to keep my eyes open, even just for a peek, I was fascinated by the fact I didn't feel a rush of blood to my head, yet found us to be soaring through the sky inverted.
AlpenFury leaves the west side of the mountain and goes all the way east to the main gate and then returns, said Peter Switzer, director of maintenance and construction who was instrumental in the design and construction of the launch coaster.
The ride, made up of three trains each able to carry six people at a time, has passengers seated in black and orange high-back seats, relying on a lap bar snug over riders thighs and shins, with a large handle to hold onto.
When rides opened to the public at the start of the day, a wave of visitors rushed to the gate of AlpenFury to line up.
'In the old days it used to be a horse collar restraint that went over your shoulders and that kept you in,' said Switzer. 'What we found with those style of restraints is that it was hard on people who didn't know how to ride, that were banging their heads side to side.'
The design used in the AlpenFury launch coaster is called a 'class-five restraint' because of the inversions and the ejection force that is trying to lift you out of your seat, said Switzer.
Having a lap bar on your body achieves the need to keep you in your seat, but it still 'gives you that sense of freedom so that you can float a little bit,' said Switzer.
'I always thought of myself as someone too scared of roller-coasters,' said Michelle, 'and even though I screamed my head off and my throat still hurts, it was actually more exhilarating than scary.'