Coffin race wraps up Frozen Dead Guy Days

NEDERLAND, Colo., March 5 (UPI) -- The Pink Socks reaffirmed their dominance Sunday afternoon, winning the coffin races for a third straight year at the Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland, Colo.

The team, consisting of six pink-clad casket-bearers and one rather lively "corpse" from the University of Colorado, churned through the snow-, slush and mud-filled course in a winning time of under 50 seconds, The Denver Post reported. The Donner Party came in second.

"Our jobs are just a way to fund our passion for coffin-racing," team captain Joel Weber said.

It was a sun-filled, raucous end to the festival, the day after some events were canceled because of bitter cold and 60 mph winds.

"Yesterday was the worst day of my life," festival owner Amanda MacDonald said.

"Today is the best."

An estimated 15,000 people filled the town that normally boasts a population of about 1,400 to celebrate Frozen Dead Guy Days, which refers to Grandpa Bredo Morstoel, whose body has been packed in dry ice in a mountainside shed since 1993.

After Morstoel died in Norway at age 89, his son brought his body to Nederland in 1989 in hopes of building a cryonics center. While the facility never materialized, for 11 winters now people have turned out in droves to honor a frozen Norwegian they never knew by having some fun in the cold.