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Precipitated by unexpected permission from Tibet, the 1935 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition was planned at short notice as a preliminary to an attempt on the summit of Mount Everest in 1936. After exceptionally rancorous arguments involving the Mount Everest Committee in London, Eric Shipton was appointed leader following his successful trekking expedition to the Nanda Devi region in India in 1934.
Compared with what had gone before and had followed, it was a small, low-cost affair. The approach was from the north side of the mountain and the climbing was planned to be after the monsoon. The monsoon was unusually late that year and beset by the weather and difficult conditions of snow, little was achieved regarding the summit. However, a very large number of lesser peaks were climbed for the first time and a southern route up the Western Cwm was identified as a possible line of approach if Nepal could ever be persuaded to change its policy of not admitting climbers.
Eventually, the expedition would have considerable influence on post-war British efforts on Everest from Nepal, with Shipton himself leading the 1951 southern reconnaissance.