![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Tap-Dancing-on-Everest-Cover-Image-683x1024.png\")
Cover of ‘Tap Dancing on Everest’ Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCover of ‘Tap Dancing on Everest’
Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain \u2014 without supplemental oxygen, porter support or chance for rescue.<\/p>\n
Zieman\u2019s book, \u201cTap Dancing on Everest\u201d is an adventure memoir, but it\u2019s also a feminist coming-of-age story. \u201cI 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,\u201d Zieman said. \u201cWomen\u2019s stories are still overlooked, and this book appears to be the first by a woman doctor on Everest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Climbing Everest with a small all-male group of climbers was not the first time Zieman had experienced the majesty of the Himalayas. \u201cThis book takes place before the commercialization of Everest when Everest climbers were elite \u2014 the best of the best,\u201d Zieman said. \u201cThe 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 \u2014 something never done before. That\u2019s why Reinhold Messner calls our climb \u2018the best ascent of Everest in terms and style of pure adventure.\u2019 To this day, The East Face has rarely been climbed because it\u2019s so remote and dangerous because of abundant avalanches.\u201d<\/p>\n
This pure adventure taught Zieman much about herself, for which she is grateful. \u201cBeing 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,\u201d Zieman said.<\/p>\n
Zieman hopes her story will inspire readers to pursue their own passions. \u201cI was full of fear and insecurity, which I\u2019m very open about in the book, so I hope people will identify with me and see that they\u2019re capable of more than they think they are,\u201d Zieman said. \u201cThat they can say \u2018yes\u2019 to opportunities despite fear and feeling not prepared enough or ready or qualified to do something they\u2019re passionate about pursuing. You can say \u2018yes,\u2019 then work hard and do your best. You may not succeed but you will definitely grow from the process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cover of ‘Tap Dancing on Everest’ Courtesy photo Author Mimi Zieman, M.D. will be at The Bookworm to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-27095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}