Perusing the book Yankee Rock And Ice

"The first real stimulant to New England ice climbing standards took the adventitious form of a visiting professorship. During the academic years of 1927 to 1930, Harvard University hosted the British geologist Noel E. Odell, a name that readers ofthe romantic epics of early attempts on MountEverest will at once recognize. Odell occupied, for a brief span, a position in New England ice climbing somewhat analogous to that of Fritz Wiessner on rock (chapter 7) and the great skier Jackrabbit Johannsen on snow: a migrant from an area with more advanced standards who raised the sights of the New England locals."