Man Builds Disney World Roller Coaster in His Parents' Backyard

November 11, 2020 1 min read

When Sean LaRochelle of Napa, California asked his dad last March if he could build a Matterhorn-like ride in his backyard, his dad thought he was joking. “He said, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s fine. No worries,’ LaRochelle told CNN. “I don’t think he realized how big it was going to be.”

LaRochelle, an architecture student, got to work building the two-story coaster with the help of 30 friends. He tried to replicate every detail of the real-life Matterhorn Bobsleds, which first appeared at Disneyland in the 1970s. And he mostly succeeded. The 50-second ride Alpine tour includes a 500-foot track, a six-foot drop, cascading waterfalls and even a mechanical Yeti. 

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LaRochelle says his mini-Matterhorn is the perfect anecdote to the pandemic, which has shuttered Disneyland and other amusement parks.

In an interview with a local ABC affiliate, LaRochelle added, “They talk about all the negatives of Covid, but one of the benefits of Covid is you have all this time, and you realize you know, ‘What can I be doing with all this time?'”