Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms
Mimi Zieman was a third-year medical student when she signed on as the sole medical officer and only woman on a four-climber expedition attempting the east face of Everest from Tibet (a route that had only been climbed once before).
She kept detailed journals the whole time, full of poems and descriptions she’d return to thirty years later when she finally sat down to write the memoir.
If you love what Mimi has to say, her memoir was the featured book in our last winter Grit Lit box. Join Grit Lit now and you’ll get our welcome box plus the next quarterly box this summer. Proceeds fund wilderness scholarships for girls and women.
Mimi Zieman is a physician, writer, and the 2025 Georgia Author of the Year for her memoir Tap Dancing on Everest, also selected as the Best Memoir of 2024 by the American Writing Awards. She grew up in New York City, fell in love with the mountains during summers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in college, and trekked solo through the Annapurna and Everest regions of Nepal before starting medical school in 1985. She practiced as an OB/GYN for decades, has written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, and writes the newsletter, Medicine, Mountains & More, combining medical news with inspiration from art and nature.
Mimi and Angie talked about:
- Training to be the sole medical officer on an Everest expedition while still a third-year med student
- Solo backpacking in Nepal in a pre-internet era
- Why Mimi became an OB/GYN after a bad teenage appointment
- The beauty and challenge of being the sole woman on an Himalayan expedition
- What menstruating adventurers should know before heading into the backcountry
- Advice for women who want to write a book, and behind the scenes of writing a vulnerable memoir
Check out these resources:
- 📖 Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman
- 🌐 mimiziemanmd.com
- 📱 Mimi on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok
- ✏️ Medicine, Mountains, & More on Substack
- ➡️ The Cairn Project on IG
- ✨ The Cairn Project’s newsletter
- 🥾 Become a Trailblazer
- 📅Summit Scholarship Foundation
📚 Join Grit Lit — Tap Dancing on Everest was in last winter’s box!
Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!
You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:
- Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
- Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
- Join our book club, Grit Lit.
- Share this episode with a friend or family member.
Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don’t miss a story!
Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms
The Cairn Project
Mobilizing to empower young women in the outdoors through grantmaking.