High-flying: Red Bull plans to film snowmobile stunts in downtown St. Paul

The Red Bull Crashed Ice skating races are returning to St. Paul this year for a fifth straight season next month. But there may be another twist this year.

Or, rather, a flip.

Red Bull has another spectacle in the offing in St. Paul, called Frozen City, involving a series of snowmobile stunts in the downtown area. It's modeled on some other promotions, like a shoe company's 2012 video of a rally car zooming through San Francisco.

In St. Paul, Red Bull is planning a wintry variation: urban snowmobiling. It includes a plan to have a snowmobiler race down Fourth Street in downtown St. Paul, hit a ramp and somersault the sled onto the first-level roof — yes, roof — of the City Hall and Ramsey County courthouse building.

The snowmobiler would race across the roof across a layer of protective panels, turn the corner at the intersection of Fourth and Wabasha streets and head for the river. The sled would then launch off of the south end of the City Hall roof and land on another ramp, placed on the courthouse plaza at Wabasha Street and Kellogg Boulevard.

Joe Spencer, arts and cultural director for the city of St. Paul, said Red Bull has been thinking about the exhibition in the city for a while. Other events here, like the Red Bull Flugtag in 2010, have used St. Paul as a backdrop. The only reason a snowmobile exhibition hasn't happened before, Spencer said, is that this is the first year that the snow has been good enough at the right time.

"You know, we own winter. We do winter better than anybody, whether it's Winter Carnival, or Crashed Ice, or just skating on a neighborhood rink, we own winter. And this is a great way for us to showcase St. Paul as a premier winter city," Spencer said.

Preparations are expected to start next week, with a video shoot planned of the stunts later this month. The specific date of the snowmobile stunts depends, in part, on weather, Spencer said.

He also said that the stunts aren't being planned as public events — they're meant to be videotaped and there are no arrangements being made for spectators.

The event is expected to coincide with the start of the Winter Carnival at the end of the month. It will precede Red Bull's Crashed Ice, which will hold a world championship here in Minnesota for the first time. That event will be held Feb. 26-27.

Last year's race was estimated to have drawn 140,000 spectators and fans to St. Paul. The ice cross races will again be running on a track from the Cathedral of St. Paul to a finish line near Interstate 35E.