Matterhorn Bobsleds is an attraction that consists of a pair of intertwined steel roller coasters running through a fabricated mountain. It is located at Disneyland in Anaheim, California and is modeled after the Matterhorn, a mountain in the Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is the first known permanently-installed tubular steel track roller coaster, though coasters with tubular steel tracks had toured European fairs as early as 1956. Located on the border between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, it employs forced perspective to seem larger than its actual size.
History 1956–1970 During the construction of the park, dirt from the excavation of Sleeping Beauty Castle's moat was piled in an area between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. When the park opened, the area, dubbed Holiday Hill (and later Lookout Mountain), was improved with benches and pathways to encourage its use as a picnic area. After the opening of the Disneyland Skyway in 1956, Walt Disney conceived the idea of a toboggan ride on the mountain with real snow, but Disneyland construction chief Joe Fowler strongly objected citing complex logistical issues and other pressing needs in the amusement park. In this period, the hill began to be known as Snow Hill. By now, instead of being a place for picnicking, the hill had come to be used primarily as a nighttime lovers' lane, much to Disney's dismay. New wild mouse-style roller coasters got the attention of Disneyland executives, who began to consider applying this emerging technology to the creation of a toboggan-themed coaster ride on an artificial mountain at the site.
The Matterhorn Bobsleds have a striking resemblance to "one of the oldest rollercoasters in the world, Rutschebanen, also known as Bjergbanen (the Mountain Coaster, which opened in 1914 and still operates with a rider on each train braking the car on each hill)." Similar to Rutschebanen (at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark), which predated it by nearly half a century, the top of the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride is also an icy scene, and the snowbirds and the interior featuring the Abominable Snowman are also quite similar in design.
The structure was also intended to act as a decorative overlay to camouflage the central pylon of the Skyway. Use of the Matterhorn, both in style and name, grew from Walt Disney's extended vacation in Switzerland while filming Third Man on the Mountain. In a moment of inspiration, impressed by the beauty of the real Matterhorn, Disney grabbed a postcard of the mountain from a souvenir stand and sent it back to Imagineer (architect) Vic Greene with the message, "Vic. Build This. Walt." This resulted in the merger of the toboggan-ride concept with the idea for a bobsled coaster ride that would run around and through the structure. The peak was first shown in a conceptual drawing that was once on display at the Disney Gallery.
Imagineer Bob Gurr was responsible for designing the track plan and has said that it was the hardest project that he has ever worked on. He began working on the attraction in mid-1958 after finishing preliminary work on the Submarine Voyage.
American Bridge Company was responsible for constructing the steel structure inside the Matterhorn. In 1936, they built the Bay Bridge that connects Oakland to San Francisco in California.
The view to the northwest shows a corner of the now-defunct Junior Autopia, which would be replaced by both the Matterhorn and the Submarine Voyage attraction the following year. The Matterhorn opened on June 14, 1959, one of three major new Tomorrowland attractions to open that year. Built by coaster builder Arrow Development and WED Imagineering, it was the world's first tubular steel roller coaster. It consisted of a wood and steel infrastructure surrounded by man-made rock. Starting with the 1961 holiday season, a revolving star stood atop it.
Trees could be seen on its sides; by making the trees at higher altitudes smaller, the Imagineers used forced perspective to augment the mountain's height. Waterfalls cascaded down its sides and frequently sprayed riders. Inside was a large, open space through which the bobsleds traveled. The peak had numerous holes in its exterior through which the bobsleds exited and re-entered, though the space within was not elaborately themed, with the infrastructure only minimally disguised as rock. The Skyway passed through the center of the mountain via a pair of openings on the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland sides. Skyway riders could see down into the Matterhorn's interior as they glided through.
In May 1964, 15-year-old Mark Maples of Long Beach, CA was killed on the ride when he tried to stand up while the ride was in progress. He was thrown from the sled onto the track below, fracturing his skull and ribs and causing internal injuries, which he died from three days later.
1970s In the early 1970s, the ride was officially made a part of Fantasyland, but this was merely a prelude to far more significant changes. In 1973, the revolving star at its top was removed, in part because of the 1973 oil crisis that had hit the US.
In 1978, the Matterhorn received a major refurbishment. Most notably, the hollow interior space was broken up into a number of small, icy caves and tunnels with far more convincing theming. A grotto filled with glimmering crystals was added near the top of the lift hill. Some holes in the mountain's skin were filled in as well, including the two large openings at the top of the lift hill that had allowed guests to briefly glimpse the entire southern part of the park. Recorded screams were placed at the top of the lift hill, along with mist machines creating a fog bank, and small holes to allow a brief view of the Skyway. Another major addition was an Abominable Snowman, whom the Imagineers dubbed "Harold". It appears as three similar Audio-Animatronic figures that roar at the bobsledders. The first is visible from both tracks, at the point where they diverge; the other two are visible only from their respective tracks. Each track also features a pair of red eyes that glow in the dark shortly after the lift hill while the Snowman's roar is heard. The roars can be heard from ground level as well, even over the recorded howling of the Alpine wind. The bobsleds themselves were also changed from the original flat, luge-like, multi-colored two-seaters to rounder, white cars decorated with orange and red stripes, and from single cars to two connected cars. The queue also was given changes mainly to the theming.
1980s On January 3, 1984, 48-year-old Dolly Regene Young was killed on the Matterhorn Bobsleds. She was thrown from her seat into the path of an oncoming bobsled, dying instantly, with her body becoming trapped under the second bobsled.
Her seatbelt was found to have been unbuckled, whether by accident or intention, and her death was ruled an accident by Anaheim detective David Tuttle. The ride opened for use the next day.
Young's husband filed a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit against Disney, which was settled out of court four years later.
The event gained additional notoriety thanks to Mark E. Smith, singer of The Fall. He was in the park on the day that Young was killed, and reported to his then-partner and bandmate Brix Smith that he had a premonition about the ride, which he called 'evil'. The event was immortalized in the song "Disney's Dream Debased".
1990s–present The Skyway continued to travel through the mountain, but its passageway was now enclosed in similarly themed ice caves. Following the closure of the Skyway in 1994, the cavernous holes through which the Skyway buckets had traveled were partially filled in. The holes in the Tomorrowland face remained mostly intact, and an abandoned crate labeled "Wells Expedition" was also added in the crystal scene as a tribute to Frank Wells, who had died earlier that year. (Wells had climbed six of the Seven Summits, with only Mount Everest remaining at the time of his death.) At the end of the lift chain, a projection of snowfall was added. With the exception of the filling of certain holes, the mountain's original external structure remained largely unchanged.
From 2003 to 2004 the ride received two small refurbishments. In 2003, the ride received an updated audio system, with the inclusion of new safety audio heard in the queue, and before the start of the ride along with the removal of the fog bank effect. In 2004, the queue received several changes including new loading gates, and changes to the actual queue line itself. Formerly two lines for each side, a single standby queue was installed that wrapped around the eastern part of the mountain. Wooden catwalk railings were also installed throughout the ride. Between 2010, and 2011 the ride was closed several times testing new bobsled car designs on the track. Two designs were tested including one with seatbelts in 2010, and one with lap bars in 2011. The vehicle seating arrangement was also modified to accommodate a single passenger in each seat rather than a lap-sitting arrangement of two riders. This resulted in three individual seats within each bobsled, with two cars linked for a total of six guests, similar to the configuration of the trains at Walt Disney World's version of Space Mountain. A planned refurbishment was supposed to take place in 2011 to add new bobsleds, special effects, and animatronics, but this planned refurbishment was cancelled in favor of revamping the entire mountain which would come the following year.
The Matterhorn was closed on January 9, 2012 for a six-month refurbishment. The mountain was renovated, receiving new paint externally and some repairs internally. The entire mountain exterior received a facelift. For only the second time—the first since the attraction was built—scaffolding was erected all the way from the base of the mountain to the top. The mountain had been repeatedly repainted through the years, resulting in a mostly white Matterhorn mountain with the appearance of snow; but the entire mountain was made bare again and carefully painted in a style more faithful to the look of the real Matterhorn, with more "snow" places on the northern side and less on the southern. For the first time since the Matterhorn's early days, the mountain's base was mostly snowless. In the past, the "snow" on the mountain's surface was merely white paint; for the refurbished ride, glass beads were mixed into the paint to reflect sunlight like real snow. Imagineer Jim Crouch was the rehab's art director. The ride reopened on June 15, 2012 with more additions. The "mountain climber" performers also returned after the refurbishment. The new bobsled were painted red, blue and green, and were based on the ones tested in 2010. As a result of the new trains, the height requirement was raised to 42 in (107 cm) from the original 35 in (89 cm). Other smaller changes were made, including the addition of wooden fences on the catwalks, improved LED lighting for the crystals, and a single-rider lane. The Abominable Snowman animatronics were given louder roars, but due to complaints they were toned down in October of that year.