Cover of ‘Tap Dancing on Everest’
Courtesy photo
Author Mimi Zieman, M.D. will be at The Bookworm to talk about her experience as a third year medical school student and doctor to a small team of four climbers who attempted a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest — considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain — without supplemental oxygen, porter support or chance for rescue.
Zieman’s book, “Tap Dancing on Everest” is an adventure memoir, but it’s also a feminist coming-of-age story. “I wanted to tell a different kind of mountaineering story, highlighting someone in a background role as opposed to most books about climbers just getting up and down the mountain,” Zieman said. “Women’s stories are still overlooked, and this book appears to be the first by a woman doctor on Everest.”
Climbing Everest with a small all-male group of climbers was not the first time Zieman had experienced the majesty of the Himalayas. “This book takes place before the commercialization of Everest when Everest climbers were elite — the best of the best,” Zieman said. “The East Face had only been successfully climbed once before our team and our leader, Robert Anderson, wanted to see if a small group of purists could manage an ascent. They audaciously tried a new route, rare on Everest, on the East Face without oxygen or Sherpa support, with no chance for rescue — something never done before. That’s why Reinhold Messner calls our climb ‘the best ascent of Everest in terms and style of pure adventure.’ To this day, The East Face has rarely been climbed because it’s so remote and dangerous because of abundant avalanches.”
This pure adventure taught Zieman much about herself, for which she is grateful. “Being in the remote wilderness was my favorite part of the climb, but I also appreciate my growth in self-reliance and trust, in both myself and my teammates,” Zieman said.
Zieman hopes her story will inspire readers to pursue their own passions. “I was full of fear and insecurity, which I’m very open about in the book, so I hope people will identify with me and see that they’re capable of more than they think they are,” Zieman said. “That they can say ‘yes’ to opportunities despite fear and feeling not prepared enough or ready or qualified to do something they’re passionate about pursuing. You can say ‘yes,’ then work hard and do your best. You may not succeed but you will definitely grow from the process.”