By: Laura Snider, DailyCamera Staff Writer, dailycamera.com
POSTED: Feb. 18, 2010
Frozen Dead Guy Days begins March 5: If you go
What: Tours of the International Cryonics Institute and Center for Life Extension (ICICLE), aka the Tuff Shed above Nederland where “Grandpa” Bredo Morstoel’s body is kept frozen, during Frozen Dead Guy Days
When: Tours are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 6 and 7 during Frozen Dead Guy Days.
Where: Tours start from the train cars in the center of Nederland at the Shopping Center. Shuttle transportation to the cryonics institute will be provided.
Cost: $25 if you pre-register, $30 at the festival
More info: To pre-register and to learn more about the schedule of events for Frozen Dead Guy Days, visit the Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce’s Web site at nederlandchamber.org. For more information on Bredo Morstoel and the tours, visit frozendeadguy.com.
After a four-year break, tours will again be offered during this year’s Frozen Dead Guy Days of the Nederland festival’s namesake — the frozen dead guy himself.
The tours, led by “iceman” Bo Shaffer, will take curious festival-goers to the Tuff Shed where the body of “Grandpa” Bredo Morstoel is cooled to 60 degrees below zero.
Every month since 1995, Shaffer has driven 1,600 pounds of dry ice up Boulder Canyon to pack around Grandpa’s corpse. Morstoel, who lived his life in Norway, has been frozen for 20 years in all, including a short stint at a cryonics facility in California. And his family plans to keep him packed in ice until a time in the future when medical advances will allow his body to be warmed and “reanimated.”
While they wait, Shaffer has plans to reanimate the tour this year, which was shut down after Morstoel’s family became frustrated with Frozen Dead Guy Days in 2005. That year, Morstoel’s daughter, Aud, was charged with criminal harassment in the days leading up to the festival, though the charges were dropped later that year.
“We’re calling it the reanimated tour. That’s, of course, what cryonics is all about,” Shaffer said. “We’re waiting to reanimate.”
Shaffer promises that this tour will upstage previous years’ events. Guests will be shuttled in four-wheel drive Porsches and BMWs to the Tuff Shed, which is now dubbed the International Cryonics Institute and Center for Life Extension, or ICICLE.