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

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.
“As climbers, we are inviting risk every time we go into the mountains."
"Mountaineering’s path asks us to gamble a thread, in order to receive everything in return."
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.
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.
Kathy co-hosts the series alongside former BBC News Nepal correspondent Joanna Jolly.
Jo's involvement with this series sees her pick up the threads of a story she last reported on nearly 15 years ago.
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.
"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.”
We are seriously proud of this series, and everyone on the Bespoken team who played a role in delivering it.
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.
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.