You Can Party with One Chill Dude at Frozen Dead Guy Days

The Colorado mountain town of Estes Park has long been known for its creepy and macabre history, thanks to The Stanley Hotel, the legendary (and reportedly haunted) hotel where Stephen King was inspired to write his novel The Shining. But now the town is about to get weirder, creepier, and way “cooler” thanks to the upcoming arrival of a Norwegian man named Bredo Morstol…well, the arrival of his frozen corpse, to be more precise. For decades, Morstol’s body has been kept frozen in the nearby town of Nederland. In the 2000s, the town started celebrating its unusual resident with a yearly party that became known as Frozen Dead Guy Days.

Frozen Dead Guy Days Moves to Estes Park

However, the clock is ticking for Morstol in Nederland. Currently, the body is being kept frozen in a shed using dry ice. In a way, it’s like a redneck version of being cryogenically frozen, though the body is nowhere near as cold as it would be in true cryogenics.

But Morstol’s family wants something better. They want a proper cryogenics facility so that, hopefully, one day, the old man can be reanimated in some form.

Luckily, Estes Park already had a reputation for the weird and creepy…and they also have a very wealthy hotelier who owns The Stanley. The hotel bought the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival and then sold it to the town of Estes Park for just $1, with the hopes that Grandpa Bredo would be moving to Estes Park as well. Fortunately for the town, it worked, and Morstol will indeed be making the move.

Reportedly, Estes Park is going to build a proper cryogenics facility and museum, with the hopes of storing Morstol’s body in -200 degree liquid nitrogen (the “proper” method of cryogenics).

CBS Colorado even reported that John Cullen (the owner of Stanley) “Plans to use the currently unused ice house on the hotel property, where ice was kept for refrigeration years ago, as a resting place for grandpa. He is creating a nonprofit for a small museum, utilizing the expertise of an Arizona-based cryogenics group that will keep the body.”

Estes Park’s Inaugural Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival

To celebrate Morstol’s move next year, the town of Estes Park came alive over St. Patrick’s Day weekend with their inaugural Frozen Dead Guy Days festival, which will return next March. I was lucky enough to snag an invite.

Costume Dance Party

The celebration kicked off with a giant dance party and costume contest in The Stanley’s historic theater. The theater’s haunted history makes it a suitable locale to celebrate a corpse. However, thanks to some great jam bands, wild costumes, and one lady who was literally walking around with a human skull (“I bought it on Facebook,” she told me), it was a wild and totally fitting way to start the festivities.

The costume theme was clearly “Ice Queen” for the ladies and “Frozen Dead Guy” for the gentlemen, and these partygoers went hardcore, creating some of the coolest and most elaborate costumes I’d ever seen.

Decorated Hearses & Coffin Races

The next day was the main event. At the festival, live bands played in multiple venues and food trucks lined up to serve everything from nachos to dumplings and even craft beer. There was also a section of decorated hearses on display that were hilarious and tons of fun to explore.

But the day’s highlight was the coffin racing, where groups had to build their own coffin and develop a team theme, then race each other through an obstacle course —all while keeping one teammate in the coffin at all times.

While the race is fun, the real joy came from the wipeouts. Drunk people trying to run while carrying their friends in a coffin is a recipe for disaster…but oh, what a fun disaster it is! The wipeouts are such a big part of the race that at the end, one team even gets crowned the winner for “Best Wipeout.”

The People

While the events are fun, what’s really special about Frozen Dead Guy Days are the people. As you can imagine, the festival attracts a certain… um… Well, let’s just say the crowd possesses a certain je ne sais quoi.

They’re the weirdos, the outcasts, the wild ones. They’re the fun people who are too unique and cool for everyday society. The celebration is rambunctious, and it’s all thanks to the crowd who isn’t afraid to blend comedy with morbidity.

Polar Plunge

On the festival’s final day, there was even a chance to experience what being frozen feels like at the polar plunge. A giant chunk of ice in the middle of a frozen lake was carved out so adventurous people could plop in for an icy bath.

The best part is that the polar plunge helped raise money for charity. (And watching the expressions on the people’s faces when they hit the frigid water was often hilarious.)

Last Laugh

The Frozen Dead Guy Days festival is a lot of fun, and it fits in perfectly with Estes Park’s already-infamous reputation. Plus, in a society that all too often mourns death and sees it as nothing but sad, miserable, and awful, it’s interesting and fun to watch people actually celebrate it.

I also couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement and wonder…will Bredo Morstol come back one day? In 2023, we scoff and laugh at the idea of cryogenics, but who knows? Maybe in a hundred years, when we’re all dead and gone, Bredo will open his eyes once more. Then who’ll be laughing?

For More Info

Visit https://frozendeadguydays.com.

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Would you want to be cryogenically frozen for possible reanimation someday?