Badwater Forum

Marc,

The following information about Las Vegas-area dry ice suppliers is courtesy of Bill LaDieu, who I crewed and paced last year, and can be found in the thread "Ice and dry Ice" in the "General Stuff" Topic section of this forum:

Reddy Ice (a major supplier - Bill used them for 2003 race)
1201 Searles Avenue
(702) 649-8002

Anderson Dairy, Inc. (down the street from Reddy)
(702) 642-7501 (open 24 hours a day)

Bill purchased the dry ice for last year's race at Anderson Dairy.  We used less last year than Bill's 60# in his 2003 race, and that worked great.  We filled a 120 qt. cooler with 30# of dry ice (two, 15# packages) and it kept the ice in that cooler frozen for two days.  I'm sure there are other ways that work, but this is just one suggestion.  The ice isn't difficult to handle; just be sure to use gloves and don't let it come into contact with skin.  Don't put food/drink in the cooler, either.  Have an ice pick handy if needed.

You need not remove the CO ice from the packaging and mix it into the H20 ice- we simply placed the two, 15# CO packages on top of the H20 ice, and shut the cooler.  *Be sure to keep the cooler lid tightly shut.*

Best wishes to your wife and her crew for a great race.

Happy Trails,

Connie Karras
2006 Crew/pacer, Bill LaDieu - 54:50
2007 First Solo Attempt

Vegas is a little out of the way, coming from Cucamonga. Dry ice isn't so hard to find. Ask around at some of the big grocery stores.
I made an attempt at using dry ice last year. My overall impression was that it isn't worth the trouble. It's fairly expensive, and I think you need fairly large quantities to make it worthwhile. I know some folks have used it with success, but I wasn't convinced. There's usually plenty of wet ice available on the course. If you restock at every opportunity, you'll be fine. The only thing you can do with dry ice that you can't do with wet ice is keep ice cream. Not worth the trouble, in my opinion.