Video

“Mountain Joy” with Nat Segal

For most of Nat Segal’s life, her definition of professional skiing was always pushing harder, further, faster. From competing in moguls in her home country of Australia to living in Chamonix, France and Verbier, Switzerland to pursue freeride skiing, pushing her own limits has always been at the forefront of Segal’s relationship with the sport. 

In 2020, when she had finally begun to feel settled in her adopted home of Revelstoke, BC, her back flare ups got more consistent. At first, she chalked it up to bad landings or skiing too hard, but the pain persisted. Eventually, she was diagnosed with a chronic condition called ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis that causes inflammation in the spine and other joints in the body. It didn’t mean she couldn’t ski, it just meant she needed to take a different approach. To slow down when her body told her to, and stop feeling like she needed to just “embrace the pain” and push through. 

“Mountain Joy” explores Segal’s shifting perception of what it means to be a professional skier as she navigates a chronic disease, listening to her body and rediscovering her “why” in the mountains.

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