Bike magazine correspondent Bruno Long recently sent a dispatch to the magazine from the Martha Creek Meltdown, an inaugural downhill mountain biking race in Revelstoke, British Columbia, that features 5,183 feet of descending, making it the race with the longest vertical descent in Canada. “Dropping directly into alpine singletrack, you pick your way through some tight, rocky sections. Working hard through the upper section, you might wonder why you hadn’t brought your all-mountain bike. That quickly changes when you finally start working with gravity, not against it in the bottom sections. Steep, rough, and rooty, it’s a true test of stamina. I usually stop multiple times a ride to shake out my hands and give my poor brakes a rest. There would be no stops, no resting, for the winner today,” Long wrote. To read his full story and view a gallery of the event put on by the Live It! Love It! Foundation, which seeks to help people with disabilities go on outdoor adventures, click here.

Photo courtesy Long, Bike magazine