VALLETTA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Four Maltese mountaineers who conquered Mount Everest last month were welcomed with balloons and applause by their families and friends at Malta International Airport on Wednesday afternoon.
Gregory Attard, Raphael Fenech Adami, Matthew Xerri and Douglas Barbaro Sant left Malta in April and have successfully reached the summit of the Everest, the highest point on earth.
Attard mentioned that they encountered a blizzard at one point, 7,800 metres above sea level, and spent there 30 hours without food, water and oxygen until the blizzard subsided.
Their most exhilarating moment, he said, was when they made it down to the base camp.
The team scaled the mountain from the northeast ridge route in China. In 2010, Attard had summitted together with Marco Cremona and Robert Gatt from the southeast ridge route in Nepal.
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