Dr. Mimi Zieman describes herself as “an ordinary person given an extraordinary opportunity.” Her memoir, “Tap Dancing on Everest: Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure,” released this year through Falcon Press Publishing, covers Zieman’s incredible journey up the East Face of Mt. Everest as a young, inexperienced doctor in 1988.
Zieman, who currently lives and practices medicine in Atlanta, recently joined “City Lights with Lois Reitzes” to discuss her new memoir.
“ I was not there as a climber, but I was serving in the role as doctor with the official title medical officer … but I was actually a young 25-year-old medical student,” says Zieman about her place in the team of professional climbers, who additionally did not rely on supplemental oxygen or porters to summit the mountain.
“The book opens when three of our climbers are missing, they had been missing for days. We didn’t have radios to communicate with them. So we were staring at the mountain. It was a sheer 11,000-foot face of snow with tumbling avalanches that all looked like a big white nothingness … So, it was a devastating time of grief and missing our friends.”
Check out the interview to hear more about Zieman’s harrowing experiences on Everest and her takeaways some 30 years later as a renowned OB/GYN.
