How would you like to be dangled over an abyss 866 feet in the air, with nothing between you and the ground far, far below? Now consider being send speeding towards that abyss with nothing at all in front of you to stop you. Sound like fun?
If so, you are going to love X-Scream, one of the four thrill rides and attractions atop Las Vegas’s Stratosphere Tower. If you want to see just how terrifying this ride can be, take a look at this video,
For some people, this ride is their idea of pure bliss, while for others it seems more like abject torture. For the rest of us, it falls somewhere in-between, something we are most likely to do on a dare, then regret once we are strapped in, only to brag about afterwards (provided we survive to tell the tale).
The ride consists of a roller coaster style car set on a 67 foot length of coaster-type track that see-saws back and forth over the edge of the tower.
It’s the type of ride that teases you, sending the track leaning slightly forward, only to pull back before leaning it even further forward, sending the car – and you- speeding toward what seems like certain doom.
That’s what makes this ride so intensely scary – when the track tilts all the way forward, you get the sudden acceleration you get from a roller coaster as it drops, yet unlike on a coaster, there is no track in front of you here. In fact, there is nothing in front of you but air.
Now you can tell yourself all you want that the ride is going to come to a stop, that you are not going to plunge over the edge. But try getting your brain to believe that in its moment of terror. It’s almost impossible not to feel that rush of pure fear.
So if you are either an extreme thrill seeker or just a masochist, you are really going to love the X-Scream. You might not shriek quite like the girl in the video, but if you do, who’se going to blame you?
