“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.