Aspiring Imagineer Sean LaRochelle and his team of 30 collaborators built a 26-foot-tall backyard version of Disneyland’s Matterhorn roller coaster that has become a viral sensation, but the amateur ride makers aren’t done yet.

LaRochelle plans to keep expanding on the project in his parents’ Napa backyard and eventually build the entire Disneyland mountain range of rides — Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain.

The reaction to the Matterhorn: Alpine Escape backyard coaster has been overwhelming, according to LaRochelle. The viral story has been picked up by CNN, ABC, Fox and TMZ. United Kingdom tabloids like The Sun and Daily Mail have covered the story and articles have appeared online in Vietnamese, Portuguese, German, French and Chinese.

“We were trying to do the best that we could possibly do. We were shooting for a Disney level,” LaRochelle said by phone. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it was also one of the most fun.”

The $15,000 construction project took four months to complete and occupies a big chunk of the family’s bucolic Napa Valley backyard surrounded by acres of grape vines.

The 26-foot-tall faux rockwork mountain features a 400-foot-long steel track with a six foot drop and a single-rider coaster cart. Along the way, riders zoom through rock formations and past a waterfall and fountains as an original soundtrack plays amid lighting effects during the 30-second journey. There’s even an animatronic Yeti along the route — just like the real Disneyland ride.

The coronavirus closure of Disneyland and other California theme parks inspired LaRochelle and his friends and family to build the tribute to the classic Matterhorn Bobsleds.

The idea to build a mini Matterhorn roller coaster in his parents’ backyard began like many pandemic projects. LaRochelle was bored and stuck at home. He’d seen other people build replicas of Disneyland attractions inside their homes and post the results online.

“COVID hit and all of a sudden everything just stopped,” LaRochelle said. “You just have all this brainpower and you’re like, ‘What am I going to do?’ Then I saw this video of this family that did the Pirates of the Caribbean in their living room and I was like, ‘Yeah, we need to make a Disney ride. We can do this.’”

But how could LaRochelle’s friends and family top the #DisneyAtHome efforts he’d seen online?

“The Matterhorn seemed like an obvious choice to me,” LaRochelle said. “We didn’t want to half do it. If we were going to do it, we were going to go all the way.”

LaRochelle reasoned that Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds ride didn’t have a lot of animatronics, the rockwork wouldn’t be that hard to recreate and he could figure out how to build the coaster track.

“You say all these things and it sounds really easy,” LaRochelle said. “But when you start doing it, it takes a long time.”

LaRochelle and his team didn’t cut corners. They built the coaster and all its elements by themselves. The Yeti animatronic was designed from the ground up. Jarold the Yeti was sketched by a cartoonist, modeled in 3D, built by a robotics engineer, dressed by artist friends from Texas and programmed to roar to life as the coaster cart passed on the track.

“It’s an original Yeti,” LaRochelle said. “Everything from scratch.”

Ever the optimist, LaRochelle thought the backyard Matterhorn coaster would take a couple weeks to build. It took four months.

“Basically every day after work, sometimes before work, every hour on the weekend,” said the father of three. “My wife is a saint because she didn’t kick me out during this whole process.”

The frame for backyard Matterhorn was built from wood and covered with PVC pipe, lattice, chicken wire and tar paper to give the mountain its shape. The stucco rockwork was sprayed on and hand sculpted before being slathered in three coats of grey, white and then black paint to give the mini mountaintop some dimension. Faux snow patches were crafted from a combination of rock salt, sand and white paint. The hand-built coaster cart uses skateboard wheels on the top, side and bottom to keep the ride vehicle attached to the tube steel track.

“We really wanted to make it as authentic and real as possible,” LaRochelle said.

LaRochelle has always dreamed of working at Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative arm of the company that designs and builds theme park attractions.

From the time he was a little kid, LaRochelle has been obsessed with Imagineers. He has fond memories of family vacations at Disneyland. He and his wife honeymooned at Walt Disney World. He even interned at Disney.

“But I realized that if I wanted to do theme park design, I needed to get some more real-world experience,” LaRochelle said.

The 28-year-old college student is now pursuing his master’s degree in architecture at Clemson University after working in the construction industry.

“I’m hoping to do more projects like this to build my portfolio and showcase that I can do stuff like this,” LaRochelle said. “Hopefully somebody notices.”

LaRochelle got a call the other day from Disney Legend Bob Gurr, who helped develop Disneyland’s 1959 Matterhorn Bobsleds and design more than 100 other Disney theme park attractions.

“I was crying,” LaRochelle said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was gushing over him. He’s truly one of my heroes.”

Walt Disney Imagineering president Bob Weis said the do-it-yourself #DisneyAtHome creations made by fans stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic have been inspiring.

“We have always been inspired by the incredible passion of our Disney park fans,” Weis said in a statement provided by Imagineering. “Seeing their creativity and shared love for the experiences Imagineers create has really lifted our spirits.”

LaRochelle and his team of aspiring Imagineers don’t plan to stop with Matterhorn: Alpine Escape.

“I do have plans to do future rides,” LaRochelle said. “I haven’t settled on one yet. We’re thinking maybe this summer, but we’ll see what happens.”

The Alpine Escape team has lofty ambitions for their backyard Disneyland in the Napa Valley.

“I’d like to do all the Disneyland mountains,” LaRochelle said. “We have aspirations of building our own versions of the mountains: Thunder, Splash and Space.”

LaRochelle and his team of collaborators are thinking of tackling Big Thunder Mountain next.

“Just because it’s similar enough to the Matterhorn,” LaRochelle said.

The Alpine Escape team hopes to use the lessons learned from the backyard Matterhorn experience when they start work on the backyard Big Thunder project.

“The hardest part of this project was figuring out the rockwork — that took two months straight,” LaRochelle said. “We got through a learning curve by the end of it.”

And why stop at only two Disneyland mountains in your backyard?

“I would love to do Splash Mountain,” LaRochelle said. “Figuring out the mechanics of a log flume seems really, really complicated.”

The final peak of LaRochelle’s mini Disneyland mountain range would be Space Mountain.

“I do not have a hard set timeline for when we’ll do this, but given the Matterhorn’s success, I may try to find a piece of property to incorporate all of them,” LaRochelle said. “It would be nice to make them more permanent.”