Every two weeks, Brad Wickham drives to Reliant Dry Ice in east Denver. He picks up a half ton of dry ice, shuttles it nearly 50 miles to Nederland and piles slabs of the cooling agent around an air-tight metal coffin where an old dead dude has been laid to rest.
“I just now got done delivering it,” said Wickham on Monday during an interview. “He’s in a wooden box that surrounds his coffin, and it holds about 1,500 pounds of dry ice. I add what dissipates over the weeks.”
“He” is Grandpa Bredo Morstoel, and he literally chills out inside a Tuff Shed in the hills of Nederland. His grandson keeps him preserved in a cryonic state. He’s the inspiration for the town’s wackiest party, Frozen Dead Guy Days, a weekend of bizarre events honoring Nederland’s famous fleshsicle.
The event has caught worldwide attention. Thousands congregate for strange events like coffin races, human foosball, a parade of hearses, frozen fowl bowling and a costumed polar plunge. Frozen Dead Guy Days kicks off at4 p.m. Friday, with its annual Royal Blue Ball. The ball features music from Flash Mountain Flood, Electric Toast & Buttery Friends and Dead Floyd. At the masquerade, the best Ice Queen and Grandpa Bredo costumes will be crowned and featured in Saturday’s parade.
Rose Lice 