}}
==Attraction History==
The creation of Expedition Everest actually traces its roots back to the original design of Disney's Animal Kingdom. The initial plans for the park called for real animals, dinosaurs, and mythical animals to be featured<ref name= "jack"> http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2010/04/expedition_everest_legend_of_t_2.html </ref>. To this end, a section of the park, known as Beastly Kingdom was set aside as the location for the mythical animals to "live". However with Animal Kingdom already over budget, Disney decided to make Beastly Kingdom part of "phase II" of the park<ref name= "jack"/>. A temporary land, Camp Minnie-Mickey was created on the land set aside for Beastly Kingdom, with the idea that the mythological animals would soon join the park<ref name= "jack"/>.
Although Beastly Kingdom was never built for a variety of reasons, Disney knew that the park needed an "E ticket" attraction, to help boost its popularity. On April 22, 2003, and in celebration of Animal Kingdom's fifth anniversary, Disney announced that they would be building a new roller coaster, Expedition Everest , in the Asia portion of the park.
Taking some inspiration from the Matterhorn in Disneyland, Imagineers decided to set the new roller coaster in the Himalayan Mountains of Asia<ref name= "jack"/>. Like the abominable snowman in the Matterhorn, this new attraction would feature the Yeti, who has long been rumored to live within the mountains<ref name= "jack"/>. Since most people are most familiar with Mount Everest (the tallest peak in the world) Imagineers wanted to base the attraction on the famous summit. Due to Mount Everest’s lack of distinctive shape however, Imagineer Joe Rohde Rhode chose to create a mountain range with Everest in the background<ref name= "jack"/>. The attraction itself would instead take place in the Forbidden Mountain.
In order to design an authentic attraction, Disney Imagineers flew to Nepal, Tibet, and China in order to get a feel for the culture and architecture of the area<ref name= "jack"/>. A lot of research also went into the creation of the Yeti for the attraction. In order to create a plausible creature, Imagineers studied various primates, whose attributes and movements were combined to create the Yeti<ref name= "jack"/>.
The construction of Expedition Everest was a laborious task for Disney. Imagineers went through twenty four different designs before finally settling on a model. After choosing the final design, Imagineers created a six foot model which was then uploaded to a computer. At this stage, Imagineers could tinker with the track design before construction on the track itself began. Expedition Everest is actually made up of three different foundations, the track, the mountain, and the yeti, which are supported separately. During the construction of the track, Disney used 25,000 pieces of steel, which together weighed 1,800 tons. To create the mountain itself, 18.7 million pounds of concrete and 2,000 gallons of paint were used. Expedition Everest- Legend of the Forbidden Mountain officially opened on April 7, 2006 (previews for the attraction had begun on January 26). On hand for the festivities were Disney CEO Bob Iger and Jay Rasulo, the chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts.