In Upon that Mountain (1943) Shipton wrote that the expedition was far too big and that the number of climbers taken - fourteen - was absurd. He rebuffed the argument put forward by the climbing establishment that reserve climbers were needed in case of sickness, arguing that in the event no one who was known to be capable of climbing to great altitudes, actually succumbed to sickness before the attempt. Moreover, the large complement of climbers on the expedition had an adverse psychological effect, making climbers feel superfluous to an expedition whose aim was simply to put a very small number of climbers on the summit: Such a state of affairs imposes an intolerable strain on everyone, and is bound to lead to friction and a consequent loss of efficiency. By way of an alternative, Shipton advocated expeditions composed of a small number of climbers, each of whom recognises their vital importance in the common effort and feels himself to have an equally indispensable part to play. His 1952 statement to the Mount Everest Committee was one of the reasons why he was not chosen to lead the successful 1953 expedition to Mount Everest: My well-known dislike of large expeditions and my abhorrence of a competitive element in mountaineering might well seem out of place in the present situation.