The steep and slippery Russian ice slides sparked centuries-long obsessions with thrill-seeking

Russia is credited with developing the original roller coaster

Roller coasters are believed to have originated in the 1600s with 70-foot wooden ice slides, typically enjoyed by the upper class. Over the past few centuries, the machinery developed into more daunting designs like the modern gigacoaster, which features a drop of 300 feet or more.

The first US patent for a roller coaster was issued in January 1884

Despite their Russian origins, roller coasters are often associated with the US. This is in part thanks to a businessman and inventor named LaMarcus Thompson, who revolutionized the amusement industry in the US beginning with the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway at Coney Island. He is now known as the "father of the American roller coaster."

A painting of coaster-enthusiast Catherine the Great visiting an ice slide

Catherine the Great, the former empress of Russia, loved riding ice slides so much she added wheels to her sleigh to continue the fun during warmer seasons. This 18th century painting depicts her being led from her palace towards the icy slopes.

Modern innovations have allowed rides to simultaneously become more extreme and safer

Several ingenious additions to roller coasters, such as extra wheels, magnetic brakes, and hydraulic system safety bars, have largely reduced discomfort and threats such as broken rides or ejected passengers.

The first American roller coaster was built at Coney Island

LaMarcus Thompson was an inventor and businessman who developed the first US amusement park ride in the 19th century and sparked a booming business. Customers spent a nickel to coast on wheeled benches over gentle hills, leaving Thompson with around $600 per day in profits.

LaMarcus Thompson wanted roller coasters to save people from Satan’s temptations

The inventor and businessman who is known as “the Father of the American roller coaster” was also a religious Sunday school teacher who wished to distract the public from indulging in popular sinful amusements of the time like saloons and brothels.

America’s first roller coaster initially transported coal instead of people

The Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway in the hills of Pennsylvania wasn’t initially intended to be a ride, but over time passengers and businessmen alike took advantage of the lovely tour through nature. The railway eventually reached over 100,000 riders in some years.

Why roller coaster loops are never circular

The beloved looped roller coaster rides used to be shapes as perfect circles and constructed with wood, resulting in wobbly machinery that gave people whiplash. After the invention of steel and further scientific understanding, Six Flags debuted The Great American Revolution—a modern, oval loop with steel that offered a safer and smoother experience.

Why so many people love roller coasters even though they’re scary

When a threat arises, it triggers our bodies to go into fight-or-flight mode and prepare for danger. However, when no obvious threat to our safety is present, this natural high can become enjoyable. Some people are more likely to enjoy these thrills based on factors like individual brain chemistry or physical health.

Corkscrew roller coasters feature tracks that twist 360 degrees around their axis

Thanks to the incorporation of steel, rides have gotten increasingly versatile, daring, and smooth, performing loops and turns that are much more difficult to safely achieve with wood.

Explaining the icy mystery of the Dyatlov Pass deaths

A decades-old mystery from Soviet Russia could be explained by studying the science of snow. After nine students died on a hiking trip in the Ural Mountains, Soviet investigators found six had perished from hypothermia while three others died from blunt force trauma. The mystery confounded officials for years, and rumors of yeti attacks and similar theories abounded until researchers proposed a new potential culprit: an avalanche.

Researchers are studying roller coasters to improve mental health treatments

Scary rides stimulate our fight-or-flight response while simultaneously releasing feel-good endorphins like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Once we realize we're in a safe space, we can enjoy the ride and even feel confident and relieved by the accomplishment of overcoming a fearful feat.

Niagara’s frozen river once hosted winter carnivals

Before a 1912 collapse, winter ice bridges across the river were so thick that entrepreneurs built bars, photo studios, and entire carnival midways on the frozen surface.

Some people may be genetically predisposed to loving roller coasters

Recent studies indicate that individuals with higher levels of dopamine may be more prone to thrill-seeking behaviours like riding roller coasters or even doing drugs or shoplifting.

Roller coasters can cost millions of dollars to make, but they often offer a substantial payoff

Over 6,000 roller coasters are in operation around the world as of 2025, with ongoing demand to build more each year. Despite being costly (some theme parks pay upwards of $50M for these rides), their financiers are able to justify the investment when considering the long-term value of a ride that sticks around for decades with daily streams of visitors.

Millennial tastes in amusement parks have made coasters more family-friendly

As parks raced to make the biggest, longest, tallest roller coasters, costs skyrocketed, and the return on investment became more challenging to achieve. Consumer tastes have also changed, with Millennials in the US preferring more mid-tier rides for family inclusion.

See how the Winter X Games course is built

Winter X Games courses are custom-built over weeks, with crews moving thousands of tons of snow to create features like halfpipes and jumps—incorporating athlete input to ensure challenging designs that push progression and safety.

In the 19th century, ice-cream-related illnesses were somewhat regular in America thanks to vendors' poor hygienic practices.

Davos is also one of Europe’s most well-known winter sports destinations

Davos emerged as a winter sports resort in 1865. The town went on to pioneer modern skiing, ski lifts, tobogganing, and ice sports. The city hosted early ski races, invented key lift technology, and became home to traditions like the Parsenn Derby and the Spengler Cup.

The odds of getting seriously injured on a US roller coaster are one in 15.5 million rides taken

Understanding the mechanics of a ride can help explain why they are so safe. Lift hills, launches, and breaks are each crucial components of coasters and are designed to possess numerous safety features in case of any dysfunction.

Avalanches happen when layered snow fails, often on perfect ski slopes

Snowpacks form unstable layers as weather shifts; a weak, refrozen layer buried under fresh snow can shear and release a slab avalanche on certain steep slopes. Triggers range from new snowfall to the movement of skiers, while survival depends on the presence of ski partners, beacons, and rescue teams.

Winter Olympic sports highlight various laws and principles of physics

Figure skaters leverage the conservation of angular momentum during spins by tightening their bodies, and the skintight suits used in ski jumping help reduce drag. Centripetal force allows speedskaters to make tight turns, while friction on skis helps ski mountaineers climb slopes. No action can violate the conservation of energy.

America's ice cream obsession began under Prohibition, with the street treat acting as a legal vice that helped ease the pain of the Great Depression.

The first Winter X Games launched in 1997 at Big Bear Lake

The inaugural Winter X Games in 1997 introduced snowboarding, skiing, and snowmobile events—helping boost winter action sports’ popularity and paving the way for snowboarding’s inclusion in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Is ice slippery because of amorphization—a chaos of molecules caused by sliding?

Traditional explanations cite three factors that make ice slippery: pressure, friction and so-called premelting. A fourth has been proposed in recent years: amorphization, that sliding along some surfaces creates molecular disorder, causing liquid-like behavior.

Virtually experience a euthanasia roller coaster

In 2010, Lithuanian artist Julijonas Urbonas came up with a fictional euthanasia coaster to generate conversation about humanely ending life. His idea involved using extreme G-forces on a roller coaster, aiming to give participants feelings of euphoria before death. In reality, the ride would probably be extremely unpleasant.

The US' coastal vacation destinations were developed with the aid of railroad companies, creating pivotal aspects of the vacation industry.

Why we pay to be scared

Why do we love roller coasters? It’s not just the speed or height, it’s controlled fear. Your brain thinks you’re in danger, then rewards you with dopamine.

How the Winter Games used to look

Using archival footage from the first Winter Olympics in 1924 to the present day, this video explores 100 years of Winter Olympic competition. Watch different eras of ski jumping, figure skating, and bobsledding. See how athletes use the facilities year-round to train. And learn how swimming facilities used for the Summer Games are transformed into curling ice for the Winter Games.

Ski mountaineering—or 'skimo'—debuted at the 2026 Winter Olympics

The sport involves skiing both uphill and downhill, with sections where the skis are strapped to the athlete's back. Skiers start at the bottom with a carpet-like layer on their skis to help ascend, remove them for the final climb, and then step back into normal skis for a slalom-like descent.

An exploration of what makes Olympic curling so difficult and strange

The sport is often maligned for its oddity, but this impassioned video argues it's one of the more impressive (and good-natured) sports in the Olympics. Sometimes labeled "chess on ice," curling at the Olympics uses 44-pound, 60-million-year-old granite stones all extracted from the same Scottish island.

Ingenuity and advanced engineering have allowed trains to overcome extreme landscapes

The Jungfrau Railway utilizes electric trains powered by hydroelectric energy to ascend the Swiss Alps, while Poland's Elbląg Canal hauls ships along cable-powered tracks driven by waterwheels. Germany's Wuppertal monorail navigates bends as it glides over a river valley, and New Mexico's Holloman High-Speed Test Track can achieve speeds of Mach 8.6 for rocket sleds.

Avalanches, which kill an average of 27 people in the US each year, typically require mountain slopes between 30 and 45 degrees and a layer of sturdy snow atop a weak, unstable layer, which can be put into motion by a trigger.

X Games emerged during “extreme” marketing boom in the 1990s

Launched as the “Extreme Games” in 1995, the event tapped into a trend from the '90s of brands labeling products and events “extreme” to appeal to youth culture—mirroring marketing in soft drinks, snacks, and video games.

The economics of ski resorts

More than 480 ski resorts pack in nearly 65 million visitors each year in the US for historically high prices. Daily lift tickets may cost three figures at many locations. Amid industry consolidation and more stringent land use regulations, ski resorts are upping their prices—a factor that does not appear to be dampening the sport's popularity. Learn more here.

The impact of gravitational force on our bodies surprised early coaster riders and engineers

There is only a certain amount of gravitational force that the body can handle before dealing with consequences like short-term vision loss or unconsciousness. Increased scientific understanding has largely reduced these impacts, with engineers combining periods of intense pressure with periods of relief.

See the “Miracle on Ice” through the eyes of a Soviet player

In this video, hockey legend Slava Fetisov reflects on the USSR’s powerhouse teams, his experience in the 1980 Olympic loss to the US, and his later move to the NHL—where Russian players became dominant forces.

Learn more about Niagara’s death-defying daredevils

This podcast from the Niagara Falls Daredevil Museum explores 19th‑ and early 20th‑century Niagara daredevils—like tightrope walker Charles Blondin, barrel-stunter Annie Edson Taylor, and Sam Patch—detailing their feats, dangers, and public spectacle.

Russian Revolution of 1917: a gallery

Being in a place where history happened is a special feeling. This interactive photo gallery from the Guardian captures that experience with then-and-now images of landmarks that played a part in the Russian Revolution. Scroll through archival photos of Bolshevik supporters marching down St. Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt, then move the slider to the right to see how the same street looks today.

'Vacation' wasn't common for Americans until the mid-1800s, when it became a luxury for the wealthy.

The forgotten carnivals that stood upon the frozen River Thames

The Thames Frost Fairs were unusual winter events that took place between 1607 and 1814. They happened during the so-called Little Ice Age, when the River Thames would freeze over for up to two months straight. These unique festivals transformed the frozen river into a bustling carnival-like environment where Londoners set up temporary shops, entertainment venues, and social spaces directly on the ice.

Why are humans hooked on horror?

A haunted horror attraction in Denmark is regularly stalked by researchers of the world's only laboratory dedicated to understanding fear's good side. Fear is one of many human emotions that correspond to a physiological response. As fear rises, so do adrenaline, cortisol, and heart and breath rates. As it ebbs, the body is flooded with dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter associated with desire, learning, and motivation.

Whirlpool Rapids formed in a matter of days during the last ice age

Niagara Falls' dramatic whirlpool rapids were created in a matter of weeks when the retreating Falls intersected a buried ice age riverbed—generating North America's largest standing waves.

Ice cream trucks are surging in popularity

Modern companies like HipPOPs and Big Gay Ice Cream are driving a resurgence of ice cream trucks, with an annual growth of approximately 9%. Experts say the market will keep growing through at least 2030.

Snowboarding was first included in the Olympics in 1998

Snowboarding entered the Winter Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, featuring giant slalom and halfpipe events—a move influenced by the sport’s rapid growth and mainstream exposure through competitions like the X Games.

Although the term 'glacial pace' is associated with the slow movement of glaciers, during glacier surging, these massive bodies of ice can move over 60 meters (200 feet) a day.

Dubbed 'stalkers,' some Ukrainian youth illegally explore Chernobyl's exclusion zone

A subculture of thrill-seekers, driven by a desire for rebellion and adventure, is representative of dark tourism in the region. Some stalkers sneak past militia posts to venture into abandoned ruins, risking radiation exposure while scavenging for ruins of the past.

'Mystery hikes' were a popular attraction in the 1930s

Still reeling from the Great Depression, many Americans were looking for low-cost (or free) activities. Some travel agencies curated "mystery hikes," which offered intrepid amblers the opportunity to be set on a blind adventure.

Simulations suggest ice's slipperiness comes from rearranging molecules

Past models have proposed that slipperiness arises from a thin layer of liquid water formed at the ice's surface by frictional melting. However, new research suggests that electromagnetic forces between interacting surfaces push water molecules out of an ordered, crystalline structure and into a shapeless, soft, slippery layer. This process occurs solely through contact, independent of pressure or friction.

Learn about the Black Bear Sports Group—a hockey conglomerate changing the ice rink industry

Ice rinks are notoriously difficult to operate, due to the complex cooling systems required to maintain the ice itself, and have an average operating lifespan of 25 years. However, Black Bear Sports Group has made millions by buying up failing ice rinks and running robust youth sports programming.