The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain and only successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first larger team, Mimi Zieman's team would climb without using supplemental oxygen, porter support, or chance for rescue. She would accompany the climbers as the doctor--and only woman--although she was still in her third year of medical school. Full of self-doubt, Zieman grappled with whether to go but couldn't resist the call of the mountains. On Everest, when three climbers disappeared during their summit attempt, she reached the knife edge of her limits and dug deeply to fight for the climbers' lives and to find her voice.
Sparkling with suspense and vulnerability, Tap Dancing on Everest is a coming-of-age story about the risks we take to become our truest selves. Zieman weaves her childhood as the daughter of immigrants raised in 1970's New York City, her father a Holocaust survivor, with adventure and medicine, capturing the curiosity and awe of a young woman as she faces down messages to stay small and safe and ventures into the unknown.
About the Author
Mimi Zieman is a board-certified OB/GYN, author, speaker, and reproductive rights activist. She was a founding member of the scientific Society of Family Planning and served as Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood Southeast. She received the Georgia 2019 "Women Who Dare" award from the National Council of Jewish Women, where she currently chairs the reproductive justice committee. She has lectured nationally and internationally for professional medical organizations and other groups, and has been interviewed by media outlets including CNN, Fox News, Georgia Week in Review, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Brides, Redbook, Glamour, Fitness, Esquire, and Good Day Atlanta. Zieman has treated frozen limbs on the highest mountain, delivered triplets near the world's deepest ocean trench, tap danced in Broadway studios, and has been a suburban mom of three--all experiences that have prepared her for unexpected challenges. Her writing has appeared in Ms. Magazine, NBC News THINK, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Sun, and the Atlanta Jewish Times. Zieman has co-authored sixteen editions of Managing Contraception. Most recently, she wrote and produced a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, which was performed in August 2022 and will be performed in October as a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee. Zieman lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
