 His ascents include two new routes on the Brenva Face of Mont Blanc, Kamet, and attempts on Kangchenjunga and Mount Everest in the 1930s.It was said that he had a tendency for irascibility, something some of his mountaineering contemporaries said "decreased with altitude".Smythe was born at Maidstone in Kent and educated in Switzerland after an initial period at Berkhamsted School.