Methods and apparatuses for loading, removing, accessing, positioning or preserving one or more items in a presence of dry ice are provided. The apparatus includes a tapered container that has a barrier-like structure which can partition the inner volume of the tapered container into an internal product storage volume and a dry icechamber. Each of the regions remain substantially undisturbed during handling, operation, use and transport of the tapered container. Methods for selectively introducing dry ice into the dry ice chamber of the tapered container and engaging the barrier-like structure within the tapered container can be achieved with a novel guiding assembly apparatus. The methods and apparatuses are particularly useful when loading and retrieving one or more items in the presence of dry ice for tapered containers that have single restrictive access openings and/or other characteristics which make access and handling difficult.