Avalanche at Dells (Timber Falls) #1!

I just got back from a month long trip that took me from Vegas to Ohio and back again! I hit a number of parks and rode many a coaster, which was heavily tilted toward the wooden domain. I hit the likes of Raven, Legend, Cornball Express and Beast. I have never been one to rank coasters. I only give my biases, which are a love of wood over steel. Some of my favorites include Ghostrider, Legend, Raven, and Phoenix!

However, these all pale to Avalanche in my opinion. I was lucky enough to be there on day 8 of operation. This is flat out the best ride I have ever been on! It only makes left turns and is short in the spirit of Raven. It circles the small park 2 times in its course. It is filled with speed and airtime. It has a couple nasty left hand, air filled drops that rival any wooden coaster. It goes balls out from the surprise first drop throughout the bunny hops than make the rest of the course. It has zero wait and is run flawlessly with multiple re-rides possible! The staff are friendlier than Holiday World! Get there now before the word gets out! It only has a 3-car PTC train. Once the word hits the streets, I’m sure lines will become a factor! This is the gem of gems! There is nothing else I can say. My wife and father back my opinion as they too rode all the coasters on this trip and came away with the impression that Avalanche was the top of the heap!

P.S. If I get settled down and have enough energy, I will provide trip reports for all the parks I hit (Bell’s, HW, PKI, Indiana Beach, Dells, and Lagoon)! I just wanted everybody to know that Avalanche is THAT GOOD!

P.S.S. Can anybody tell I like this ride? :-)

Woo hoo! Sounds like a good year for wood! :)

What day were you there? Good to hear more positive buzz about one of my new favorite coasters. Looks like Thunderhead will have to put up a fight for best new wooden coaster.

I was there 7/13/04! I'm heading for Thunderhead this Sept! Just so happens my brother lives in Knoxville! :-) I'll compare the coasters then. For now, we all know how I feel about Avalanche!

It's surely sad that many parks think they can't market wooden coasters unless it's the biggest and baddest and usually not that good compared to mid sized hell bent woodies.

Wood rules!

Chuck, who thanks you for the report of the coaster he's headed for.

What time were you at the park because I was there around 3:30 and was wondering if you were there.
The park began selling night passes recently. Now you can ride for $14 from 5pm to 10pm.

I was there last weekend and that coaster just rocked. I made quite a few comments in the Hades construction thread on it. Avalanche is the real deal. With more and more people saying great things about this ride, I'm starting to see that it is not just me who thinks this coaster is one of the best in the Midwest.

Sucks about the night pass. They didnt offer one to me. I got stuck paying the full 20 bucks the first night I rode Avalance. Then again, I rode the thing like 20 times so I more than paid for that pass.

BTW, the offer is still on the table. Anyone coming into the area to ride Avalance, drop me an IM and maybe I will join you. I need a good excuse to go back out and ride it again!

Regardless of what happens with the ACE Con next year, I *will* be spending some time at Timber Falls....even though my miniature golf game isn't what it could be....ain't that right, boblo? ;)

It's cool to see that of the three adult woodies opening this year in the U.S., they are 2 for 2 on positive reviews and Tsunami looks very promising as well. I guess that it is now safe to assume that S&S did in fact deliver last year, exactly what Enchanted Village wanted (a family woodie of moderate intensity) and is more than capable (between the reviews of Avalanche & Falken) of delivering some seriously kick ass wooden coasters. *** Edited 7/25/2004 2:14:20 PM UTC by Pale Rider***

I was there about 1:45 until about 3:00! I returned later that night to get more. I must have just missed you.

By the way for those who have not rode it yet. I'm by no means an expert on seat choice. I generally subscribe to the rear of the train is best for any wooden coaster. I watch many a review where some of you folks break it down seat by seat. Anyhow, I found no bad seat on this ride. There are only 12 to choose from, and I assume I hit all of them in my 20-30 spins. There is air and speed in every seat. I just cannot say enough good stuff about this ride. IMHO this is the best ride I've ever been on. I've not done Timbers, Thunderhead, or Boulder Dash yet,so maybe there is a better wooden experience out there for me. However, I see no way they can top this bad boy!

P.S. Just think, PKI could have had 3 or 4 of these for the cost of Tomb Raider! :-(

The first thing I said when I finished my first ride on Avalanche was, "Oh my God, that was better than Cornball!" I had just been at IB a few weeks earlier and I love Cornball.

I agree that there are no bad seats on this ride. They are not all the same, but they are all awesome. Good news about the night time pass...I should be back shortly for more rides. I have already been twice and still have not had enough. But as much as I love Avalanche, Thunderhead is still better. I also like Shivering Timbers better and I have the Holiday World coasters ranked higher too, but I can see how someone would like Avalanche more. My ranking is based on the few night rides I got on Raven and Legend...at high noon Avalanche has them beat by a mile. It certainly has more air than Raven and Legend combined and the sustained speed can rival any woodie. You have to see it in action to understand how fast this thing goes. After watching so many woodies about that size, you get conditioned to think those speeds should not be possible.

All Hail Thunderhead! ;)

Im glad such great woodies were built this year.

Jeffrey- We at Dollywood look forward to your visit!

I rode Cornball for the first time 2 days before Avalanche. I also forgot to mention that I also hit the Ozark Wildcat way at the beginning of the trip (I'm already forgetting some of the stuff I've done---too old)! I loved both of these rides. I'm clearly a terrible guy to come to for ranking because my favorite coaster is usually the last wooden coaster I get off of. :-) This is especially the case at Holiday World where I alternate between Raven and Legend all day as I hop from one to the other.

However, I cannot remember EVER getting a rush like I did on that first Avalanche run (maybe the early 1980's Beast runs?). I also sampled the Big Chiefs coasters AFTER Avalanche and in my opinion there was NO comparison. They didn't even have a chance. That sort of tells me Avalanche is special. I did not get much from either Cyclops or Zeus. They seemed merely average.

Anybody know how much Avalanche cost?

P.S.S. I'm ready for Thunderhead in Sept.! I obviously agree that this is a good year for those of us who prefer wood!

I just put some pics up on PhotoBucket that I took a few weeks back of Avalanche. I resized these quite a bit and optimized them so if you want on original let me know and I can send you one.

Enjoy! *** Edited 8/5/2004 2:53:04 PM UTC by Kick The Sky***

Cool. Thanks for sharing those photos. *** Edited 8/5/2004 2:58:07 PM UTC by rocky racoon***

A great off-ride video of Avalanche can be dowloaded here:

http://www.lonnol.com

It shows exactly why everybody is raving so much about this coaster.
I thought that the video was sped up, but I was assured that it is not. It looks unreal.

Hmmm...Nothing shows up in the Winzip window when I downloaded the video.

If you have a PC, right-click the link and select Save Target As...save it to your PC and then unzip it.

*** Edited 8/5/2004 5:01:46 PM UTC by janfrederick***

Adam, I know you're out there.....*fantastic* job...:)

I guess the good folks at Timber Falls and S&S deserve SOME of the credit too, LOL....;)

Nice splash/cymbol crash... ;)