Nobody does it quite like Bella Bacon. She exploded onto the scene in a few years back, winning Newschooler's Breakthrough Skier Award and stomping technical tricks with an inimitable style. What perhaps you don't know is that her most impressive skiing was done while suffering from a combination of MALS and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, plus more recently, Long Covid as a bonus. This hellish cocktail resulted in POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome)-like symptoms, which without going into huge detail affect the blood flow and often the heart, and are hugely detrimental to balance. Often, they make it impossible to exercise or even stand up, let alone throw three swaps with style.

Bella has been suffering for more than 6 years, and for the past two years, has barely been able to ski. She has popped up, dropped a hammer or two, and then had to take months off as a result. Last winter she barely skied. In September, she had a major open-chest surgery to try and correct things and return her to snow. Early indications are that the surgery has been successful, and Bella is well on her way to recovery. We can't wait to see her back on snow, because if she was able to do what she already has done on skis with a condition that severely impacts her abilities, we can only imagine what she's capable of when fit and healthy. We caught up with Bella to find out more about the past few years and her goals from here on out. Her words were so inspiring that we decided to hold this until New Year, and we hope they will serve as inspiration to you for the year to come. Thank you Bella.

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Questions by @milo-mcsenderson

What's up, Bella? The first question is a big one: How on earth did you push yourself to get to the highest level of the sport with this ongoing condition?

I just love skiing. I love doing tricks. I love trying to learn something new, and battling it over and over again until I do it. I wouldn't have pushed myself if it wasn't something I'm most passionate about. Yea, I felt absolutely fucked, but my love for skiing overpowered the pain, and inability… well until I legitimately couldn't even stand anymore.

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Bella feat. the before and after, a huge mass of cells was removed which should hopefully restore normality, or at least vastly improve her symptoms

How did you manage the chronic issues caused by the combination of conditions you were faced with on a daily basis?

God, I tried soo many different things to try and manage my issues. So many medications, so much research, SO MANY DOCTORS APPOINTMENTS. Nothing really helped. But after the MALS surgery, I mainly just am taking a lot of different types of medications, anti-inflammatory injections, exercise, and breathing exercises. Not being able to breathe into my stomach for many years made my breathing jacked, and jacked my whole autonomic nervous system too, I believe. So now I painfully have to force some breaths into my stomach any second I think about it... I have to relearn how to breathe. Right now, the thing I can't do anything about is leftover brain fog. It's gotten better slowly since surgery. I just hope it gets to the point where I am clear enough to be aware while skiing

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How has the journey affected you mentally, especially in terms of returning to the highest level of skiing?

I think that my health conditions have brought me the strength I would need to simply just be at the highest level of skiing. I don't think I mentally could handle it before, and I damn straight couldn't physically. But facing not knowing what was wrong with me, what could happen to me, or what I was even supposed to do about not being able to really…function, really helped me. Life puts us in deep and gnarly situations to bring out the strongest parts of us. And without this journey, I wouldn't have even accessed the strongest part of myself. So I’m excited. I feel fresh and so ready to finally achieve what I want to in skiing.

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What did you learn about yourself in your time away from skiing?

I learned a lot about myself in my time away from skiing. I have learned to become so unbelievably aware of my physical and emotional feelings. I had to become aware of my physical sensations to try to help me figure out what the hell was going on. So really, I just did a lot of thinking and realized knowledge is power. A lot of people say ignorance is bliss, but if you dive into things and have enough structure in your mind to not let it negatively affect you, you can figure anything out.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1083899/Bella-Bacon-doing-Bella-Bacon-things-at-PC-----

We're excited for more of this...

What excites you most about your return to skiing?

Just being able to ski like I used to when I was a kid. I mean I’m manifesting that I feel like that. I’m still saying this during my recovery so I don't fully know how I’m going to feel. But the thought of skiing, with no mental impairment/brain fog, to smell the crisp cold air and feel it go to my brain, to ski with no extreme pain or breathlessness. I cannot wait for the day I am skiing and I can feel skiing in its rawness, not numbed out or mentally impaired or anything. I’m simply just skiing again. And much stronger, physically and emotionally. It's sick, I've never really skied and been strong. I've always felt like a bag of bones just hucking my shit [laughs]. But now I'll be in the gym and building my strength slowly.

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What have you learned about yourself during this time and how do you think that can help others in a similar position?

The most valuable thing I learned was awareness. Emotional and physical awareness. I want to help people to be aware of what they are feeling. I couldn't grow or do anything until I knew myself or until I was aware of my thoughts, emotions, and feelings. I really want to push people in the direction of getting in touch with themselves, so that they know what they can conquer. We all have an insane amount of potential and I really want to put out a message and inspire everyone to believe that anyone can get to where they want to be, as long as they know themselves, know what they truly want or are passionate about, and as long as they work hard and can manage that negative voice. I hope my story will give at least one person the motivation to start working on themselves and diving deep into finding who you truly are. Because that is the joy of life. Everyone is given one thing in this life that is set in stone, and that thing is you. Everyone is a lot more powerful and strong than we think are

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Have you been able to enjoy anything during your time off skiing?

Honestly, I didn't enjoy it much. I was unable to be active and I've learned that being active is the part of life that regulates me and makes my brain feel good. I did enjoy getting to know people deeply and certain relationships, that if i was skiing, I wouldn't have had time to fully focus on. I guess I mainly enjoyed learning. Learning deeply about others, about myself, how to navigate my way through life, and how to be somewhat okay while I wasn't active. The more I feel like I'm learning, the more I feel like I'm growing. I did get a Sur-Ron which is like an electric dirtbike. That made me happy and stoked about life; the feeling of adrenaline again pumping through my blood, out in nature.

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Last question, although you might not know the answer yet. What is your outlook for the rest of the season?

It depends on how I will be feeling, mentally and physically. I haven't really gotten there yet, I'm just focusing on my recovery. But I have thought about it a bit and if I'm feeling good, man I have so many tricks to do. Mainly I've just been thinking about putting a lot of tricks to snow and just getting more comfortable with jumping. From there hopefully, I'd come back to competing and feel comfortable with what I have to throw down.

But I'm taking it one day at a time right now. I'm still working on my strength. It's pretty hard since I had a nervous system dysfunction, I have to work on retraining my body and my mind to work together. I have to remember and manage a load of things to stay healthy: where exactly I breathe, how much I'm breathing, which correct muscles to use for exercise, how dissociated I am from the present, and much more. I'm still not where I want to be, but I'm getting very close. I'm trying to not put pressure on myself but it's pretty tough not to. I have to keep reminding myself that my career isn't a race. But I do know one thing. Dammmmmnn am I hungry to ski!