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Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain is an elaborately themed roller coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park on the Walt Disney World Resort property in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. more...

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Background

Expedition Everest often is compared to the 1959 Matterhorn Bobsleds roller coaster at Disneyland, which features a snowy mountain setting (though much smaller) and a far more primitive "abominable snowman" figure throughout the ride.

Although moderate by contemporary roller coaster standards, Expedition Everest is unique for having its trains travel forward and backward as a result of the yeti's interference with the journey. This is accomplished through two sets of rotating track segments on pivot before and after the backwards segment. In its publicity material, Disney pointedly has described the attraction as a family thrill ride.

Expedition Everest is the tallest of the artificial mountains at Walt Disney World Resort, joining Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Mount Gushmore, Space Mountain and Splash Mountain on the list of Disney-built peaks. According to Imagineering, it is Disney's 18th mountain-themed attraction. If the Expedition Everest mountain were real, it would be ranked fourth on the list of the highest summits in Florida at 320 feet above sea level.

The artificial mountain is not a reproduction of Mount Everest; it is the fictional "forbidden mountain" guarded by the yeti in the attraction story created by Walt Disney Imagineering. Everest is represented by the barren background peak on the far right, which is meant to suggest it is far in the distance (an example of forced perspective). The attraction's conceit is that the roller coaster is a passenger train offering a speedy route through the Himalayas to the base of Mount Everest.

According to Disney, the attraction occupies 6.2 acres in the park's Asia section and the mountain itself is just shy of one acre.

Expedition Everest celebrated its grand opening on April 7, 2006 in ceremonies led by Disney CEO Bob Iger and theme parks chairman Jay Rasulo. It had been operating for invitation-only previews and public soft openings since January 2006. The attraction first was announced publicly on April 22, 2003, during an event to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Story

Walt Disney Imagineering spent six years researching, designing and building Expedition Everest, including many trips to the Himalayas to collect reference material and observations. The resulting attraction is a fictionalized telling of the legend of the yeti, using an imaginary setting created with meticulous re-creations of Himalayan architecture, art and cultural traditions.

Riders approach the attraction through the remote village of Serka Zong in the fictional kingdom of Anandapur, which is located in the foothills of the Himalayas. Several village buildings that had been used by the Royal Anandapur Tea Company have been repurposed by businesses that send trekkers on various expeditions throughout the Himalayas. "Expedition Everest" is the name of a specific trek arranged by the Himalayan Escapes tour company in Serka Zong.

Read more at Wikipedia.org