I nearly drove off the freeway last week. No, no, wait. This isn't another story of "tragedy narrowly averted." In fact, I'll promise right at the outset not to use the words "I thought I was dead" anywhere in this piece. This is more about the thrill of discovery, which most recently came to me on my drive into the fine city of Tacoma, Washington. I was late, as usual, for a function. I'd bought a shirt with some buttons on it because I suspected there would be well-dressed people at the Washington State History Museum.

And, this being the opening night of the "Detectives on Everest" exhibit, I was thinking some of those folks might be checking to see if I could clean up properly for a civilized gathering. But my clean-shirted, semi-groomed look was in jeopardy as a surprise discovery nearly caused me to spill my taco, my beverage and my car into the ditch all at once.

From Interstate 5 I suddenly spied the museum and a massive banner with my picture on it. I was shocked, to put it mildly, but remember the photo well. It was taken by Andy Politz during our 2001 Everest expedition and it shows me and Phurba Sherpa at 28,300 feet on the Northeast Ridge. Camp VII is an improbably flat place among severely tilted places. Also known as the Mushroom Rock, and it isn't a good place to camp.

In Tacoma, I'd forgotten all about camping and climbing and I wasn't expecting to be famous right then and there on the freeway. After I overcorrected, fishtailed a bit and received a couple of fist and finger gestures from nearby drivers (who may be excused for not catching my resemblance to the dude on the wall, who was well camouflaged in the purple down suit with the radio pressed to his face), I finished my taco and found a parking place at the museum.

Now, I can't be trusted to give an unbiased critical review of the exhibit opening and the speeches by Eric Simonson and Jochen Hemmleb that accompanied it. But, that being said, it was way better than the King Tut exhibit I saw as a kid. In fact, I don't remember hearing that King Tut had climbed anything of note, whereas the gang we were spotlighting (the British climbers of the 1920's and '30's, the Chinese of 1960 and '75) had pulled off some mind-boggling achievements between 28,000 and 29,000 feet. And I had to admit to my partners from 2001 that I'd been wrong. I was the one at the end of that expedition saying that because we hadn't found exactly what we were looking for (Andrew Irvine and the fabled 1924 camera with an answer to how far he and George Mallory had ascended), there weren't stories worth telling from our trip. I'd somehow forgotten how many fascinating things we HAD found on Everest's North Face in 2001. Blame it on the 1999 expedition and the way it skewed my judgment for what was a significant in the discovery department.

— Dave Hahn, MountainZone.com Columnist