It has been pointed out that Wilson's naivety may have been partly due to the style of the reports of the early British Everest expeditions. With lingering Victorian restraint, mountaineering literature of the time often played down the risks and difficulties faced by the early climbers, dismissing avalanche-prone slopes, steep ice walls and sheer rock faces as bothers, and putting little emphasis on the debilitating effects of high altitude, which were still poorly understood. However, it is still surprising that Wilson did not attempt to learn how to climb on snow, when a simple look at a photograph of the mountain would have told him that it would be required.