Alpine slides
I have always been partially intrigued by alpine slides.
If you are not familiar with them, these are concrete troughs built into the sides of hills or mountains in which visitors can pay to ride a little cart down them. Sort of like a bobsled, but with a small open cart.
I have never ridden one, and have recently discovered that there is one close to where I live. In the 1970's and 1980's these were popular tourist stops, and could often be seen near various exits etc when travelling via interstate.
I am curious, who here has been to one? Who has ridden one? And who knows of one that still exits? Are they worth it? Any fun?
Shaggy
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Shaggy
A.K.A. John K.
I went on one last summer in Colorado. It was alot of fun, but if you go to fast, you'll crash and you get HUGE burns. It was well worth it. To be exact, the slides were in Brekonridge(sp?).
The courses had three levels. Two were 'beginner' and one was 'expert'. They intertwined and it was fun to see all the people speeding down the hill while your on the ski lift.
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A Vekoma SLC would do Nebraska wonders! :-)
*** This post was edited by John9411 on 3/2/2002. ***
*** This post was edited by loriu on 3/2/2002. ***
there is one in Pembrey Park, in south Wales where i lived a couple years ago...i never go the chance to ride one, but saw it a few times...they do look like loads of fun!! :)
Tim (who is aware that many Americans dont know that Wales is a part of Great Britian, hehe:)
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ROLLERCOASTERS....BETTER THAN OXYGEN BABY!!!!!!
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SFOGeorgia.
Can't wait for Superman: Ultimate Flight
Drachen Fire, RIP: 1992-1998 Dismantled 2002
Mountain Creek (aka Action Park) in Vernon NJ had an alpine slide, I never got to ride it. Way back like 6 or 7 years ago, The park was called action park, and they only had a couple rides. The Alpine Slide and a small space shot were their highlight attractions, but once two people died on each, the park closed. It was later bought out and made into a water park, and a ski resort in the winter (how clever).
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How much more floorless can they get?
Umm, I think I should refresh your Action Park history.
The place was a huge Ski Resort for a long time. when Intrawest bought it out, it already had all of the trails opened. Intrawest just added the high speed quads and the gondola lifts. Also, the waterpark was there, too. The waterpark is what was called Action Park. The place was HUGE! They had a ton of waterslides. They also had a ton of deaths and serious accidents. They had a Bungee Jump tower, a Sling Shot, and the Space Shot. they also had 4 or 5 go-cart tracks at the bas of the mountain.
There...that being said, I can move on.
Mountain Creek removed their alpine slide 1 year after Intrawest bought it. The reason? they took out the ski lift that you normally used to get to the alpine slide height (about halfway up the mountain) and put in the 8-person gondola. There was no way of unloading from the gondola halfway up the mountain, so there was no use for the alpine slide...unless you wanted to walk halfway down the mountain.
CamelBak ski resort has an alpine slide. I rode it last year, I beleive. It's pretty fun. there are two right next to each other for he entire course, so it's great for racing.
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-Kyle Brylczyk
SAVE INVADER ZIM!
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Where has the magic gone in the name Disney?
Coaster131 said:CamelBak ski resort has an alpine slide. I rode it last year, I beleive. It's pretty fun. there are two right next to each other for he entire course, so it's great for racing.
I did that one a few years back. I had a lot of fun, except the second time I went down I had a broken sled, and the thing went extremely slow. When I was there, one side was used to go faster on, and the other side was for the slower people. I wouldn't know how it is now though.
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*** This post was edited by DrachenFire04 on 3/2/2002. ***
I've been on a few in Washington and Oregon... Another reason why they don't have too many anymore is that they orignally used asbestos sleds and coated the slide with a little asbestos. I assume that this forced them to switch materials and that probably ran the costs up, because they were pretty cheap when I was young.
The slides had to replace their asbestos with more expensive parts, like fiberglass, steel, or aluminum. For houses they allow it to remain in for ceilings if it is sealed (like with a clear coat of varnish), but for schools and other government facilities they had to reduce the amount to acceptable levels. I remember when they banned it in schools, back in 1986. I noticed the ceiling tiles were changed one day, and then I saw the news report when I got home. I vaguely remember that alpine slides helped discover what exactly was causing the health problems, I'm hoping it wasn't something like a huge increase in lung cancer for children of non-smoking parents. That's fairly disturbing...
But all is good now, plus some slides originally used or switched over to steel. I hope I didn't scare anyone who went on an alpine slide before 1986... If I get lung cancer or mesothelioma, I am suing Sesame Street for having kids on alpine slides in the closing credits(where I first saw them)
-djansi
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There is a Racing Alpine Slide at the Park City Mountain Resort, Park City, Utah. If you watched any 2002 Winter Olympics Coverage, this was the Venue for the Men's and Women's Snowboarding Halfpipe, Men's and Women's Snowboarding Parallel Giant Slalom, and the Men's and Women's Giant Slalom.
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Icarus Flies Again
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"If somebody throws a rock and knocks a man off his donkey, do we say that he's stoned off his ass?
There was one called "Raccoon Mountain Alpine Slides" near Chattanooga, Tennessee. I believe it closed a few years ago, though.
I rode this one many times and all I can say is that they're insanely fun. You can seriously fly off the tracks if you go too fast! The bummer was when you'd get behind some grandma going down at a creep... that spoiled the whole thing.
They are awesome, the old "Boston Hills" ski area had one, and "Attitash Mountain" in N.H. had a really good one, but the best was at Bromley Mountain in Vermont.
I used to work during the summers for a scaffolding company, constructing an 11,000 seat temporary stadium for the Volvo Tennis Tournament that used to be held at Stratton Mountain (VT). The best part was that they put us up at a little (flea bag) motel at the base of Bromley! Almost every night we would hike up the mountain and take a ride on the slide. It was a little sled you sat it, if you pushed the stick forward, you released the brake, pull the stick back and brake on. You had to be careful and wear long sleeve shirts and long pants, or you were taking a chance, because if you crashed, you got a serious burn!
The absolute best was when the track was a little wet, beause WET TRACK = NO BRAKES! Bromley had to close the ride during the day when it rained, but that was really the best time to ride, and on a rainy day we would all rush home. Most of us knew how to handle the sled on wet track, we all crashed occasionally, but not that bad. But one time we had a kid who didn't know how to control the sled, he got going way too fast on a wet track and he went flying off the track at about 20 mph, sled and all, and broke both his arms! Of course, he was done for the season and he had to go home.
Even though it's not a coaster, the Alpine Slide is a totally awesome pissa ride!
NitroExplodes said:
Coaster131 said:CamelBak ski resort has an alpine slide. I rode it last year, I beleive. It's pretty fun. there are two right next to each other for he entire course, so it's great for racing.
I did that one a few years back. I had a lot of fun, except the second time I went down I had a broken sled, and the thing went extremely slow. When I was there, one side was used to go faster on, and the other side was for the slower people. I wouldn't know how it is now though.
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Yeah, they still do that. But no one pays attention to the signs for it, heh heh. Usually the parents og on the fast one and the small kids go on the slow one. I got angry because when I was on the fast side, I kept on getting stuck behind extremely slow people and it pissed me off. The thing about the alpine slide at CamelBack is that at the end it isn't nearly as steep, so if you hit your brakes it takes forever to continue on the rest. I just press the lever forward and get fast as all hell on that thing.
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-Kyle Brylczyk
SAVE INVADER ZIM!
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