During the 1930s Eric Shipton had become the pre-eminent Everest mountaineer although he was nowhere near as well known to the general public as George Mallory - Shipton's fame would come following his 1951 Everest reconnaissance - but in mountaineering circles he was highly respected. He had been on all four Everest expeditions of the 1930s and had led one of them. However, he was not so well regarded as a leader by some of the mountaineering establishment in London who were elderly and had a rather military approach to climbing mountains. Shipton was a keen exponent of informal, lightweight trekking with an emphasis on small parties and on exploration rather than on reaching summits.