The Lipstick Blondes

BBC Learning EnglishPeople and PlacesThe Lipstick 1 BlondesAmber: Hello, I’m Amber 2 and you’re listening tobbclearningenglish.comIn People and Places today, we meet a ski mountaineer –and she defines 3 the term for us! And she takes us to anextremely high, cold and lonely place – the Mustagatamountain in China.
　　Suzy Madge is the leader of a group of women who callthemselves The Lipstick Blondes – they admit it’s a sillyname because they don’t all have blonde hair and theynever wear lipstick! But they did prepare very carefully -with a strict physical training programme – before theyset off to the climb Mustagata mountain. Suzy talks about adifficult decision she had to make alone on the mountain,and we hear from Nick Holton of the British MountaineeringCouncil who comments on the expedition.
　　First though, Suzy explains what ski mountaineering is! Andshe says it’s‘meditative 4’ (from the word ‘meditation’ – that’sconcentrating your mind on just one thing) as well as,‘exhilarating’ – it makes you feel happy and alive! Skimountaineering is …Suzy MadgeWhere you climb up a mountain and then you ski down! It’sa really great combination of a kind of meditative climb upand then an exhilarating ski down.
　　Amber: Now as it happens, The Lipstick Blondes didn’tmake it to the top, the summit 5, of Mustagata mountain whichis at a demanding 7,500 metres. Suzy explains whathappened. As you listen, try to catch the expression sheuses to describetaking ‘an individual approach’, in other words, notoperating as a team.
　　Suzy MadgeWhen we started the climb from base camp, it becameapparent that we were all going at very different speeds.
　　So we had to sit down and think about whether we were goingto try andstick together as a team and push everyone as far as theycould go, or whether we were goingto take a more individualistic approach and everyone dotheir own thing. We decided 6 to stay together as a team.
　　On the summit day, we started late because there was quitea blizzard 7. One of us was quite a long way ahead - it wasme, I sat down and waited for the others and – as someonesopertinently put it, as I told them the story – I watchedmy ego 9 slide down the mountain as Iwaited for the others, because basically, I wasn’t goingto get to the summit because I waswaiting for the others just to see how high we could allget.
　　Amber: Did you catch it? Suzy says they decided to staytogether as a team – ‘to stick together as a team’, andnot let ‘everyone do their own thing’. If you do your ownthing, you do something the way you want to do it. Suzy wasahead of the others but she decided to wait so that theteam could get as high as possible, even though that meantshe wouldn’t get to the top. A friend told her that she‘watched her ego slide down the mountain’! She decided tolet go of her ‘ego’, her idea of her own importance, andput the team first. Listen again.
　　Suzy MadgeWhen we started the climb from base camp, it becameapparent that we were all going at very different speeds.
　　So we had to sit down and think about whether we were goingto try andstick together as a team and push everyone as far as theycould go, or whether we were goingto take a more individualistic approach and everyone dotheir own thing. We decided to stay together as a team.
　　On the summit day, we started late because there was quitea blizzard. One of us was quite a long way ahead - it wasme, I sat down and waited for the others and – as someoneso pertinently 8 put it, as I told them the story – Iwatched my ego slide down the mountain as I waited for theothers, because basically, I wasn’t going to get to thesummit because I was waiting for the others just to see howhigh we could all get.
　　Amber: Next, Nick Holton of the British MountaineeringCouncil comments on The Lipstick Blondes’ expedition. Doeshe think it was successful? Well, first he describes asuccessful expedition in mountaineering terms, and then heassesses the expedition ‘in other terms’ – in relationto other things.
　　Nick HoltonSuccess would be getting to the top, being the first, doinga new climb, being the first to ski something – then theexpedition clearly wasn’t a success. But if you think ofit in other terms, in terms of a group of women going awayand enjoying themselves or a group of women takingresponsibility for themselves on a huge, huge mountain,then clearly in their own terms they’ve been verysuccessful.
　　Amber: So Nick says the women took responsibility for eachother and enjoyed themselves – and that equals success!
　　Now let’s recap the language we focused on.
　　meditative (from meditation) – concentrating your mind onjust one thing exhilarating – if something isexhilarating, it makes you feel happy and alive! summit –the highest point of a mountain‘to do your own thing’ – to do something the way youwant to do it‘to stick together’ – to stay togetheryour ego – your idea of yourself and your importance andability‘in mountaineering terms’, ‘in other terms’ – here,the word ‘terms’ is used to describe which area of asubject you’re discussing.