Rocky Mountain Wood Coaster to Open in Sweden in 2016

Kolamarden, a Wildlife park that overlooks Bråviken bay in Sweden, has announced a massive wooden roller coaster that will open in 2016.  Named Wildfire, the park appears to have very high hopes for their creation, already giving it the tagline of "The Greatest Wooden Roller Coaster in the World."  Honestly, from the concept art released with the announcement they certainly appear to have a solid basis to stand on when making that claim.

I've never heard of Kolamarden, and that's because up until now it really has been mostly a zoological park, though it seems they are branching out and adding rides now.  Wildfire will certainly put them on the map in that regard.

Wildfire will utilize the park's hilly landscape to the fullest, plunging the first drop of the side of a large cliff.  The lift will take the trains up to 187 feet, then they will encounter a first drop of 161 feet at 83 degrees that will produce a speed of just over 70 miler per hour.  The trip will include some outrageous elements such as an Inverted Zero G Stall and a total of three inversions over the 4,265 feet of track.

While the huge drop is a focal point of the ride, the twisted middle section is where the potential for real thrills hides, at least I think.  The ride will curve around itself, encountering over banks and other twisted track elements along the way.  All this is set among a heavily forested area, and the side of the cliff face seen above.

The park released this overhead view of Wildfire's layout as part of the announcement video.  It helps make some sense of the ride path that can be seen in this point of view movie the park created.

Wildfire's website is now up and running, including several other videos, facts and more about the coaster.  2016 seems pretty far off at this point, but it seems this one will be worth the wait.