X-Message-Number: 23613
From: "Trygve B.Bauge" <>
Subject: FDGDays, Excerpts from yesterday's article in the Rocky Mountain News
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 04:21:43 +0100
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Steven R. Nickerson Rocky Mountain News
Caretaker to a corpse, Bo Shaffer of Delta Technogroup Inc., left,
keeps the body of Bredo Morstl at 90 degrees below zero with dry
ice. Frozen since 1989, the body is kept in a Nederland shed.
Ken Papaleo News
After taking a polar plunge, Laurelyn Sayah emerges from a pond
during last year's Frozen Dead Guy Days festival.
George Kochaniec Jr. Rocky Mountain News
"Coffin racer" Torin Perret, 8, will put his wheels to the test with
his father, Chris, in the annual coffin races during this year's
festival. Activities will also include a Grandpa look-alike contest
and a frozen T-shirt contest.
RELATED STORIES
Freaky festivals
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Tuff sell
Preservation of Grandpa faced stiff opposition in Nederland until blithe
spirits prevailed
By Erika Gonzalez, Rocky Mountain News
March 12, 2004
Wander up a steep and windy road just east of downtown Nederland and
you'll stumble upon a Salvador Dali-esque, grey, concrete structure.
The architect behind this strangely crafted building designed it as a
multi-purpose facility: part home, part cryogenic laboratory. And though
it serves as neither now, one lonely relative and customer still linger
just a few feet away.
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Tucked inside what is likely the world's most famous Tuff Shed and buried
underneath nearly 2,000 pounds of dry ice lies Bredo Morst?l, a man
literally frozen in time. Though Morst?l, known simply as Grandpa to most
in this quirky mountain enclave, might be dead, he's far from forgotten.
This weekend, curiosity-seekers will ante up $25 each for a tour of
Grandpa's chilly crypt - one of the biggest draws offered as part of the
Frozen Dead Guy Days festival.
Now in its third year, the three-day festival celebrates Morst?l's cold
corpse with a variety of unusual activities, from coffin races to a
Grandpa look-alike contest.
"I think it appeals to people with a sense of humor," said Teresa Warren,
one of the festival's organizers. "They find it refreshingly different."
Last year's festival attracted 5,000 people, more than double the year
before. If the weather is good, Warren believes attendance could reach
10,000 this weekend.
And this year's festival promises to be bigger and better than past
celebrations. Thanks to new sponsorships from high-profile companies such
as North Face and Tuff Shed (which donated the shed where Grandpa
resides), festival organizers have added more activities (a frozen T-shirt
contest, for example) and expanded already popular elements of the event.
For business owners, the festival has provided an especially big boost as
winter recreation winds down. Nederland's only in-town hotel - a Best
Western - is nearly sold out this weekend. And Warren, who owns Off Her
Rocker antiques, says last year's festival weekend was her best of the
year, sales-wise.
Still, it might strike some outsiders as strange that Nederland residents
would want to profit from Morst?l's frosty fame.
"Some people would probably prefer that it be forgotten," admits Mayor
Scott Bruntjen. "But it's not going to be forgotten. You can go anywhere
in the world and when you say you're from Nederland, people say, 'Oh,
that's where that frozen dead guy is.'
"So, you might as well capitalize on that."
But it's taken years for Nederland's leaders to become more accepting of
Morst?l, whose frozen remains were discovered nearly a decade ago.
Morst?l's grandson, former Nederland resident Trygve Bauge, kept his
grandfather and another client, Al Campbell, on ice in a metal shed, while
he worked on completing his cryogenics laboratory. Nederland's town
council learned about the budding business after Bauge was deported back
to his native Norway because of an expired visa. While Campbell's family
sent his remains back to Chicago for a more conventional burial, Bauge and
his mother fought efforts to move Morst?l.
The council quickly adopted an ordinance prohibiting the storage of frozen
corpses, but eventually allowed Morst?l to be "grandfathered" in.
Bauge hopes that medical technology will someday revive his grandfather,
who died of a heart attack in 1989. He's hired Bo Shaffer, of Delta
Technogroup Inc., to serve as Grandpa's caretaker. Each month, Shaffer
delivers hundreds of pounds of dry ice to Morst?l's mausoleum, keeping the
ice-cold corpse at an icy 90 degrees below zero.
And though Shaffer only clears a little more than $200 after buying ice,
gas and paying for an assistant, he says the work is worth the hassle.
"The publicity is certainly invaluable," he acknowledges. "This is the
highest profile job my company has."
Shaffer has brought reporters from the National Enquirer and other
national media outlets to Morst?l's unusual tomb.
"I have clients in New Jersey and Florida who say they saw my name in the
paper," Shaffer says.
In 1998, the Beeck sisters - a family of Boulder filmmakers - made a
documentary about the Morst?l saga. Last year, the sisters released a
feature-length version of the film, which is slated for several screenings
during the festival.
"I think it's so funny that they had such a battle over the body and now
Grandpa is basically the chamber's Man of the Year," says Kathy Beeck.
"One of the local guys we interviewed in the film says this is the
inevitable progression of everything. I think Nederland has come full
circle on that."
For years, the town's chamber of commerce flirted with holding an
end-of-winter festival, but nothing seemed to capture much attention.
Morst?l's story finally provided Nederland with a unique focal point much
like Fruita's popular Mike the Headless Chicken Days festivities.
"With the theme of Frozen Dead Guy Days, the possibility of events became
so much more creative," Warren says.
Indeed, Frozen Dead Guy Days seems to be an amalgam of offbeat activities
not easily found at other festivals. Where else can you see teams carry a
handcrafted coffin (with someone inside) across a snow-covered obstacle
course or watch beauty pageant contestants share their knowledge of a
certain cryogenically preserved Norwegian?
"I have some people ask me if I think it might be a little morbid," says
Warren, who says she's encountered little negative reaction to the
festival. "People dying in Iraq - that's morbid."
Even Bauge doesn't find the festivities in bad taste.
"I think the festival will continue to make Colorado a safe place for
cryonics," says Bauge in a statement on the chamber's Web site.
And Grandpa's Tuff Shed serves as perfect place to take a crash course on
the fine art of freezing dead bodies. Though Grandpa isn't visible (he
rests in a hermetically-sealed aluminum container at the bottom of a
large, wooden box), it is interesting to see his creatively concocted
tomb. Shaffer has tried to make the shed more homey - a collection of
Christmas trees from years past sits on shelves next to the icy coffin, a
comic strip on cryogenics is taped to the side of the box and an ice cream
cake from Grandpa's 101st birthday chills on ice inside the tomb.
"Nobody knows more about what goes on up here than me," says Shaffer, a
talkative and charming character who serves as tour guide during the
festival. "Last year, I asked everyone on the tours whether they thought
it was worthwhile, and not a single soul wanted their money back."
Frozen Dead Guy Days . When and where: Tonight through Sunday in Nederland
(17 miles west of Boulder).
. Cost: Outdoor events are free, admission to indoor events varies.
. Information: 720-374-7742 or www.nederlandchamber.org/Frozen DeadGuyDays
Festival highlights
FRIDAY
. Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed. A feature-length documentary detailing
how Nederland became the nation's cryogenics capital. 5:30 p.m., Backdoor
Theater.
. Grandpa's Blue Ball. Featuring Shanti Groove and an Ice Queen contest. 9
p.m., Kathmandu Restaurant.
. Champagne Tour of Grandpa's Tuff Shed. 10 p.m.
SATURDAY
. Snow sculpture contest. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
. Mammoth parade. 11 a.m., Main Street.
. Tuff Shed coffin races. Teams carry makeshift coffins and a rider around
a frozen obstacle race course. Noon to 4 p.m., Chipeta Park.
. Grandpa look-alike contest. 4 p.m., Black Forest Inn.
. Grandpa's crawl. A bar tour of local watering holes. 9 p.m.
SUNDAY
. Grandpa Tuff Shed Tours begin at 9 a.m.
. Polar plunge. Warm-blooded swimmers brave the cold to raise money for
the charity of their choice. 11 a.m., Chipeta Park.
. Frozen But Not Dead Film Festival. Noon to 6 p.m., Backdoor Theater.
. Frozen T-shirt contest Participants struggle to pry a T-shirt from a
block of ice and put it on. 1 p.m. at the Pioneer Inn.
or 303-892-5350
in case the article didn't show up correctly here is the link:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/entertainment/article/0,1299,DRMN_6_2719775,00.html
Life-Extension Systems, Universal Liberty, The Global Village Project,
The Norw. Icebathing Club, Action 88/Residental Assoc. at Hovsetervn. 88
Trygve Bauge, pb. 59 Hovseter, N-0705 Oslo, Norway. Ph(47)22-14-80-78
Visit Trygve's Meta Portal (tm) www.trygve.bauge.com
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