A team of nine climbers — eight from the United Kingdom and Hardie from New Zealand — set off on the reconnaissance mission. Hardie, based on his engineering background, was put in charge of developing a better oxygen system than had been available to the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition. Hardie was appointed deputy leader by Evans and put in charge of training two team members, John Angelo Jackson and Joe Brown, in the use of crampons. After two months on the mountain and setting up camps at various heights, helped by 300 porters and 40 Sherpa, it became clear that they had the chance of turning their reconnaissance mission into an attempt to climb the mountain. George Band and Joe Brown reached the summit from their top camp at on 25 May 1955, with Hardie and Tony Streather repeating the achievement on the following day. Technically much harder than Mount Everest, Kangchenjunga was not climbed again for 22 years.