Ruttledge was instructed to recruit the British climbing personnel for the expedition, assisted by an advisory sub-committee of Norton, T. G. Longstaff and Sydney Spencer, with Geoffrey Winthrop Young also giving assistance. Ruttledge was keen on inviting Mount Everest veterans; neither Noel Odell nor T. H. Somervell were available, but E. O. Shebbeare, who had been transport officer in 1924, was again selected in the role, this time also being appointed deputy leader - at forty-nine, he was the oldest member of the expedition; Crawford had also been to Mount Everest, in 1922. Other members of the party had previous Himalayan experience, too, in particular Shipton, who had climbed Kamet (as well as Mount Kenya), and Smythe, who had not only climbed Kamet but had been on the international expedition to Kangchenjunga with Professor Dyrenfurth. Birnie had also been on the Kamet expedition, as transport officer. Notable in their omission were several of the top British rock-climbers of the period - Alf Bridge, Colin Kirkus and Maurice Linnell - reflecting the traditional approach of the sub-committee, as well as Ruttledge himself, who said: I am coming more and more to the opinion that we must beware of the north British school of rock-climbers if we are to succeed on Everest. Individually they are probably good men, but they are a close corporation, with, it seems to me, a contempt for everyone outside their own clan.