Mimi Zie­man blazes an unlike­ly jour­ney from the daugh­ter of Jew­ish immi­grants raised in an Ortho­dox com­mu­ni­ty in New York City, her father the sole sur­vivor of the Holo­caust from his fam­i­ly, to the doc­tor and only woman on an Ever­est expe­di­tion as a 25-year-old med­ical stu­dent from the Bronx.

Her team of six attempts a new route up the remote East Face of Ever­est in Tibet with­out sup­ple­men­tal oxy­gen, Sher­pa sup­port, or chance for res­cue. When three climbers dis­ap­pear dur­ing their sum­mit attempt, Zie­man reach­es the knife edge of her lim­its and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.

Weav­ing Judaism, fem­i­nism, and med­i­cine in a riv­et­ing adven­ture sto­ry, Zie­man recounts her immi­grant fam­i­ly expe­ri­ence, her time on an Israeli Kib­butz, and how she spon­ta­neous­ly hosts a Seder for her Ever­est team. Her com­pelling nar­ra­tive attrib­ut­es her repro­duc­tive rights advo­ca­cy to her father’s val­ues, and her unyield­ing fem­i­nism to the strength of her moth­er and grand­moth­er, cre­at­ing a tale that is as dra­mat­ic as it is inspiring.