@slopehunter documents uphill runs
Slope hunter Danusa Prado with her shirt at the RAT Beach ramp. Photo
Danusa Prado, 40, is a slope hunter. She seeks out and runs up steep hills and inclines, over and over, to the point of exhaustion. The Redondo Beach accountant and economist began running up slopes three years ago in her native São Paulo, Brazil. Running slopes was a way to connect with her surroundings, she explained. She focused on impoverished neighborhoods, where she shared her views on social inclusion.
After moving to Redondo Beach she began strength training with Fabio Melo, a Brazilian MMA coach. Prado looks for sites with short, steep inclines. Before running a slope, she measures the steepness with a phone app and walks the slope several times to get a sense of how her body will react. Then she runs up the slope until she has pushed her body to the point where she can no longer run.
Danusa Prado running her favorite ramp, at RAT Beach. Photo by JP Cordero.
Her favorite slope is the ramp at RAT beach, between Perry’s Café and the Torrance Beach Lifeguard headquarters. This slope is 17 degrees and her fastest time running up the slope clocks in at 35 seconds.
Her Instagram account #slopehunter, where she posts photos and tells people where she will be “slope hunting,” has 130,000 followers. Her goal, she said, is to share the message that “you can be happy, healthy, and have an amazing life at 40.”
She hopes to explore slopes all over California. After that, she plans to look across the US for new and challenging inclines.