By David Fleet

Editor

Hunter Bradley legs and lungs were on fire.

“You just don’t want to fall back,” said Hunter, 17, a Brandon High School junior. “Stay low and just keep your momentum going forward.”

On May 12, Bradley joined a few hundred men and women in the world’s steepest race, 400 meter race up the landing, then up the ramp of the iconic ski flying hill Copper Peak in Ironwood, Mich. The Red Bull 400 principle is simple: participants start at the bottom of the ski jump and race uphill 40 stories to the top of the largest artificial ski jump tower in the world at a 35 degree angle.

Bradley completed the race in 9:43 seconds, a respectable 125th out of about 500 racers. The winning time was Ian Torchia of Wisconsin with a time of 4:45.

“You really have to pace yourself,” he said. “I consider myself physically fit but this race is tough.”

Each race includes 25 men and women.

“The other concern is running into other climbers,” he said. “It was totally insane. I’ll be back next year.”