Greg Attard and Marco Cremona, two of the Maltese mountaineers who climbed up Mount Everest, the highest peak on earth, returned to Malta yesterday. The other Maltese climber Robert Gatt and the expedition guide Victor Saunders arrived here a few days ago.

Relatives and friends welcomed the trio who managed to fly the Maltese flag atop Mount Everest on 17 May. They shared their Everest experience and addressed a press conference at Malta International Airport right after Attard and Cremona landed yesterday.

The three brave Maltese men have established a national record in completing this feat. Apart from this fact, Malta is now placed with the top five countries whose nationals managed to reach the summit of Everest, per capita according to the population of the respective countries, explained Mr Cremona who is an engineer by profession.

“We climbed the mountain convincingly as according to theory only one of us should have made it. Normally 30 per cent of the climbers manage to reach the summit. Robert was one of those who reached the summit first. In fact he had to free some of the ropes after they were covered by snowfall in the previous days,” said Mr Cremona. Asked whether they are planning another similar challenge, Mr Cremona said that for now they will spend more time in the company of their family after the two-and-a-half month expedition.