Launch of Amazing Sport Stories: Chasing Mountains for the BBC World Service

“As climbers, we are inviting risk every time we go into the mountains."

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"Mountaineering’s path asks us to gamble a thread, in order to receive everything in return."

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So says climber and podcaster Kathy Karlo, as we publish episode 1 of Bespoken's 4-part mini-series 'Chasing Mountains', part of the Amazing Sport Stories strand for the BBC World Service.

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Chasing Mountains is the story of 5 astonishing climbers, who each had a chance to become the first woman ever to summit all 14 of the world's highest mountains.

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Kathy co-hosts the series alongside former BBC News Nepal correspondent Joanna Jolly.

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Jo's involvement with this series sees her pick up the threads of a story she last reported on nearly 15 years ago.

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She says: “Back in 2010, when I was in Nepal reporting on this story, I was focused on who was going to win the race.

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"But Chasing Mountains tells the story of the enormous mental and physical challenges that these women overcame – and it’s made me realise that being first isn’t that important.”

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We are seriously proud of this series, and everyone on the Bespoken team who played a role in delivering it.

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Production credits:

• Producer - Leeanne Coyle and co-producer - Carys Wall.
• Engineers - Joel Cox (not on Linkedin) and Adam Whalley.
• Our producer in South Korea So Jeong Lee.
• Production support - Patrick Wallace.
• From the BBC World Service commissioning team: Jon Manel, Anna Doble, and Jonathan Hill.  

And of course, the biggest credit of all must go to the 5 incredible women at the heart of this story.

They are Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Nives Meroi, Edurne Pasaban, Oh Eun-sun and Go Mi-young.

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Listen to Amazing Sport Stories: Chasing Mountains episode 1 now on BBC Sounds.

Episodes 2, 3 and 4 are released on the next 3 consecutive Mondays.

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