by Eric Minton

www.gettheloop.com

703-567-0532
eric@gettheloop.com

Dodonpa
Fujikyu Highlands
Fujiyoshida, Japan

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No snow job
I have covered ride openings in inclement weather. I have ridden roller coasters in a variety of conditions. Never before had I ridden a coaster in the snow.

This was an auspicious way to trial run Dodonpa, the world's fastest coaster and a ride whose layout promised a singular experience: a launch reaching 107 mph (172 km/h) in 1.8 seconds, covering 150 feet (45 meters) in that time, a quick 50-foot drop (15-meter) into a tunnel, a 74-degree banking turn 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground and then over a 170-foot (52-meter) hill at 90 degrees up and 90 degrees down.

Already the cold, hovering around freezing, made our first ride a frosty affair, but my prime concern then was mentoring Jon Callihan, a writer from Popular Science magazine who has a deathly fear of heights. He endured the circuit with his eyes closed, but arrived back at the station a conquistador, albeit a shaking one. My next ride came after Dodonpa was shut down just 30 minutes into its public life due to a blanketing snowfall which started right after the opening ceremony. With S&S Power in need of film footage showing riders on the coaster, I joined some of the company engineers and other journalists on two circuits.

Already about an inch of snow had accumulated on the ground, and the surrounding cedars, power lines and coaster beams wore a fluffy coat. Our car rolled into the launch tunnel, where the "dooom-dooom-PAH" soundtrack maintained such a rhythmic chant it inspired us to start singing Queen's "We will, we will ROCK YOU." The chant ceased, the countdown commenced, and we rocketed into what was, literally, blinding speed: the snow, like blowing sand, stung my unprotected eyes. Nevertheless, we whooped and hollered our way around the track. Passing back through the station, Keith Robertson, president of JKR & Associates, the ride's installation manager, handed me his protective goggles, and we whipped back out through the snowstorm.

Photos by Quin Checketts, S&S Power

How can you truly judge a ride in these conditions? By how much the ride itself emerged through such conditions. Nowhere else outside NASA can you go so fast so fast. But Dodonpa, though highlighting its speed, has much more drama than just a rocket-fast launch. The first drop after of the launch may dip only 50 feet, but in concert with the tunnel it provides an effective scrunch moment (it was at that point my Popular Science colleague closed his eyes for the duration). The high bank builds anticipation for the hill, and the hill delivers its promised thrill, with sustained air time from the peek to the tunnel at the foot of the hill, a covered bank just off the midway that provides a surprising denouement.

The ride lasts only 52 seconds, but only a curmudgeon with a stopwatch would note Dodonpa's brevity. So many memories are packed into that one-minute passage of life that at ride's end providers and patrons alike were panting with the exhaustion of an hour's worth of emotional exertion.

Eric Minton