Frozen Dead Guy Days – Estes Park, CO

Frozen Dead Guy Days (FDGD) is a unique weekend-long festival honoring Grandpa Bredo Morstoel, who is cryogenically frozen in Nederland. After over 20 years of festivities in Nederland, the festival was relocated to Estes Park. Celebrate the season with contests, competitions, live music, great food, parades, and parties.

The New York Times named FDGD in its Top 10 Best Parties of Winter, a list which also included Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. This year’s festivities take place Friday through Sunday, March 17th – 19th, 2023. The festival started in 2002 in remembrance of Grandpa Bredo Morstol who is frozen in a Tuff Shed above the town after being shipped overseas from Norway following his death.

History of FDGD

As the story goes, Morstoel was out cross-country skiing in Norway and died of a heart attack. His grandson Trygve Bauge immediately put the body in dry ice and transported him to the U.S. in 1989. He was then stored in liquid nitrogen until 1993. That year, he was moved to Nederland where he is currently still resting.

Trygve was then deported for overstaying his visa, passing the duties onto his sister Aud. She kept her father’s body cryogenically frozen in a shack behind her house. In 1995 she was evicted due to living with no electricity or plumbing. She told a local reporter the story of her father.

Nederland investigated and made it illegal to store a dead body on your property, but Grandpa Bredo was grandfathered in. Tuff Shed donated a better shed for storage. The job of keeping Grandpa frozen was passed onto Delta Tech. The company’s CEO, Bo “the Iceman” deposits dry ice twice a month.

Events at Frozen Dead Guy Days

Frozen Dead Guy Days Signs — Polar Plunge and Coffin Races are two of the top events at FDGD. Photo by: Ty Nigh

After a massive attendance in 2022, the town of Nederland no longer wanted to host the event. The owner of the spooky Stanley Hotel in Estes Park purchased it a few months after it was canceled. There will still be the same unique lineup of events including: