Frozen Dead Guy Days.

Last week I was lucky enough to be able to attend the most prestigious public cyrogenic event in all of North America: Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland, Colorado.

The Dead Guy in question was Bredo Morstoel, former Director of Parks and Recreation in Baerum County, Norway. He passed away in Norway in 1989, was packed in dry ice and shipped to America. He now rests in a Tuff Shed in the hills above Nederland. When the Nederland City Council found out about their frigid resident, they passed a law against keeping corpses on one's property. Ex post facto, suckers! So, given icy lemons, the town decided to make frozen lemonade. The Chamber of Commerce has been celebrating Grandpa Bredo's suspended animation with a yearly festival every year since 2002.

My friend Tim and I got into town just before the saturday parade. Nederland is about 2500 feet in elevation above the front range so while it was bright and sunny in Boulder, it was 40 degrees and snowing in Ned. Perfect weather for a parade! And what a parade!

The local industry and sponsors made a strong showing, throwing handwarmers and mushroom bread to the crowds. The competitors in the afternoon's Coffin Races showed off their teams and the New Belgium team made a point at stopping at every bar along main street. The highlight of the parade was the long string of hearses. Some classic, some restored and some heavily modified.

That's Project Alexi, far and away the fan favorite of the parade. Zachary was very careful not to immolate any spectators.

After the parade the crowd dispersed to the many local restaurants, the Polar Plunge or the New Belgium Beer Tent. Tim and I grabbed elk and buffalo burgers then hit the beer tent. One has to support the sponsors of an event such as this.

Then the focus of the festival: The coffin races. Each team was composed of seven members: six pallbearers and one "passenger" carried in some sort of homemade conveyance. These conveyances ranged from coffins (naturally) to hotrods and oversized beer bottles to fighter aircraft. As seen in this snowy panorama, two teams raced head to head. From the starting line, through the Tuff Shed, over (or under) the limbo bar at the swingset, then to the slide. The passenger clambered up the playground equipment and down the slide. The pallbearers performed a "fire drill maneuver" around their coffin and raced to meet their departed on the other side. Finally, a sprint to the finish over five slippery berms of snow. Heats were won and lost at this stage of the race, as pallbearers fought to keep their footing and balance. They weren't always successful and more than one passenger ended up being dumped in a most unceremonious fashion.

The final heat found a team of Elvis impersonators facing off against Team America with their F-15 coffin. The race was close, with the narrow Tuff Shed injuring several people, but in the end Team America came out on top.

Tim's got plans to race himself next year. He said, "This is like the day after Christmas. Now we have to wait a whole year before Frozen Dead Guy Days comes around again." But that's a year of planning, training and coffin building. We'll be back, Nederland! We want everyone laughing at us next year.

Plenty more picures on the flickr.