91-year-old Hamilton man climbs Slovenian Alps to celebrate his birthday

The first time Mike Bradaric did this journey was in 1956. It was tough then, and it was still tough when he decided to do it again this month.

Mike Bradaric is a retired Stelco employee from Hamilton, and decided to do something special for his 91st birthday.

“I threw my hand up in the air. I made it, it was emotional,” Bradaric says.

Bradaric turned 91 on July 2 climbing a 22-hundred-metre mountain near the Austrian border with his grandson.

It was a hard climb, especially the last stretch in the rocks above the trees.

“Well those 500 metres were tough because you have to negotiate those boulders where you put the feet on,” Bradaric says.

“It was so tough that I could not make more than three steps at a time. Believe me. I was out of my energy. I almost told my grandson I cant go any further, but I had such an urge, I’m going to make it.”

He did make it and retraced the desperate flight to freedom he took with his wife Julia almost 70 years ago.

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Mike grew up in the former Yugoslavia during the communist dictatorship of Josip Tito.

“It was horrible, I mean I went through the second world war,” says Bradaric.

“We almost starved to death because of a shortage of food.”

In the 1950s he and his wife decided to escape to the west, dodging soldiers with orders to shoot people trying to leave and spies who would turn them in; climbing the mountain together at night.

“We had to climb 45 degrees almost two thousand meters up, at nighttime with no lights, nothing. all we had to hold was each other,” says Bradaric.

“We kept climbing, climbing until we reached the top. We wanna reach the top. We just said to ourselves a little more, let’s go a little more.”

They made it to the top, and to freedom in Austria.

“It was a great feeling. Let me tell you we both cried,” Bradaric says.

“I heard from some of the people say do not follow the road, do not go on the road, because there’s also some of those people reporting to Austrian police and they will send you back. So obviously those 50 kilometres we still had to go through the woods.”

After that, their journey led them to Hamilton where they planted roots, raised a family and Mike worked at Stelco as an electrician for more than 30 years.

“Oh man that was lucky, there was no doubt.”

At 91, he still has the energy to climb a mountain and make a wish come true.

“Oh man, I can’t tell you, it was so, fulfilling my dreams.”

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