NEDERLANDWith pastel on their bodies and determination in their eyes, the Pink Socks soaked the competition in the Frozen Dead Guy Days Coffin Races for a third year in a row on a chilly, windy afternoon.
They toted a teammate in a coffin around a snowy-to-muddy course near the Nederland reservoir in under 50 seconds, leaving their final heat competitors, the pioneer-garbed Donner Party, eating their slush.
"Our jobs are just a way to fund our passion for coffin-racing," wisecracked Joel Weber, captain of the team of University of Colorado engineering graduate school students.
Today was a catch-up day for more than just coffin racers.
Some of Saturday's festivities were cancelled because of bitter cold and winds of more than 60 mph that were toppling tents early in the morning.
"Yesterday was the worst day of my life," said Amanda MacDonald, who had organized three previous Frozen Dead Guy Days before buying the festival from the Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce last year.
"Today is the best."
The crowd's roar at the Coffin Races finish had been magnificent to MacDonald, who also was celebrating her birthday today.
MacDonald estimated the two-day festival's total crowd Sunday at up to 15,000. The celebration honors Nederland's resident frozen dead guy, Grandpa Bredo Morstoel, whose body has been packed in dry ice in a Tuff Shed on the nearby mountainside since 1993.
When he died at 89 years old, his son brought him to Nederland from Norway in 1989 in hopes of building a cryonics facility that never materialized.
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Revelry rules as Frozen Dead Guy Days wraps up with coffin races
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