15-year-old Mark Maples stepped into the bobsled, his smile beaming from ear to ear. He was about to ride the Matterhorn, his favorite ride in the entire park. He turned around to the man behind him, who had his daughter in his lap.
“I love the Matterhorn,” he jabbered to the stranger. “It’s my favorite ride here. I’ve been waiting all day to ride it.” The stranger smiled slightly before he turned away to buckle his seat belt. Mark did the same, and the bobsled departed from the loading dock.
The bobsled turned the corner, entering the icy mountain. Mark and the other passengers were quickly introduced to complete darkness. Grumbles and roars echoed in the mountain, scaring some of the other passengers.
“Dad?” the daughter asked, her voice quaking. “What’s that sound?”
Mark quickly turned around. “Oh, that’s just the yeti,” he said enthusiastically. “He pops up throughout the ride to freak people out. He’s really cool, actually. He’s a super realistic animatronic. It’s almost like you don’t notice he’s a robot.”
“Oh…” said the daughter, her voice trembling once more, looking back to her dad for reassurance. The dad gave Mark a dirty look for scaring his daughter, though Mark didn’t notice as he already turned back around.
The bobsled continued through the cave, taking a swift turn into the open air. It quickly dipped around a corner, and the yeti suddenly confronted the riders. “Roooooarr!” growled the yeti. Everyone screamed in shock while Mark stared in awe. Just as quickly as the yeti confronted them, the passengers zipped around another corner, continuing down the track of sharp turns and jerks.
“Oh man, that yeti is so cool!” exclaimed Mark. “I need to get a closer look at that thing.”
The bobsled raced through the track, popping in and out between caves and the open air. It soon headed towards another cave, where Mark knew the abominable snowman would be awaiting inside.
“Ok, this is my chance,” said Mark. He slowly unbuckled his seat belt, standing slightly as he shifted his weight to the edge of the cart to peer at the upcoming yeti. The cart entered the next cave. The passengers swooped by the yeti once again as the yeti let out another terrifying roar. Most of the passengers jumped in fright, but Mark stood on his toes in excitement, straining his neck to see the yeti the best he could.
“He looks so awesome!” said Mark. “I wish I could have a pet yeti like that.”
Very abruptly, the bobsled jerked into a sharp turn on the track. Mark lost his balance, the momentum of the curve shifting him forward as he fell off the side of the bobsled, plummeting to the track below.
Another bobsled on the track collided with Mark’s body, fracturing his ribs and skull. Passengers screamed in horror, yelling for help. The ride operators shut down the Matterhorn, and then emergency medical technicians rushed in, put Mark’s body on a stretcher, and sped him to the hospital. While he fought hard to hold on, three days later, Mark succumbed to his injuries.
Today, Mark’s spirit seeks revenge on the Matterhorn Bobsleds, angry at the creators for the twists and turns that tossed his body from the cart. Riders have reported body aches and strange bruises after going through the Matterhorn’s rigid turns, harshly bumping their knees, hips, and elbows on the bobsled’s interior. It’s Mark; despite being unable to completely toss riders from the bobsled, he secretly conspires to make riders experience at least a fraction of his pain from that fateful day.
So for your safety, remain seated with your seat belt fastened, keeping your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. If not, you may follow in Mark’s phantom footsteps.
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Author’s Note: My source story does not include much detail, so I tried to add detail that explains the motivation behind Mark’s actions. My source explains that he unbuckled his seatbelt, but it never explained why Mark unbuckled his seatbelt in the first place. The yeti is a big driving factor of the Matterhorn’s “story”, so I decided to incorporate the allure of the yeti as motivation for Mark doing what he did. In the source, it never specifies if he was alone or with others. For my story, I wanted to have him be alone to help set the scene a little bit for his actions. I feel as though if he had a friend or a family member riding with him, they would have tried to stop Mark from standing up in the first place, which would go against the plot of my story. For the several years that I have visited Disneyland, the bobsleds on the Matterhorn have always been a little painful. It’s likely because I’m older, taller, and bigger than I was before, but my family and I seem to have a small injury when on the Matterhorn, whether it’s bumping our hip on the side of bobsled as it jerks around or hitting our ankle on the metal handlebars tucked underneath the edge of the bobsled. I wanted to include that as part of the “curse” because hitting pressure points on the side of the bobsled a fairly common complaint of those who ride the Matterhorn.