The Challenge8000 team are geared up to start climbing the world’s highest mountain, situated in the Himalayas mountain chain between Nepal and Tibet in May.

Challenge8000, made up of seasoned climbers Gregory Attard, Robert Gatt and Marco Cremona, will be the first Maltese group to set foot on the mountain.

The team entered the final phase of training for the feat after the three succeeded at reaching the summit of Mount Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world, last September, 10 days ahead of schedule.

World-class mountaineer Victor Saunders, who has climbed the Everest four times in the last five years and will be guiding the team to the summit this year, led the group up Mount Cho Oyu. A Sherpa, a local professional mountaineer who will determine the success of the expedition, will also accompany the team. The Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest 13 times, every year since he turned 20. A support team of five Maltese trekkers, Annemarie Dalmas, Alec Sultana, Martin Farrugia, Natal Falzon and David Bonnici, will accompany the team to base camp.

They plan to leave Malta at the end of March for an expedition along the South Col route on the Kumbu ice fall, lasting 61 days. They will be living in a tent in the most hostile environment.

The final training for Challenge8000 will be a trip to Sicily to venture Mount Etna, which is in its worst conditions at the moment. They will try to walk the route, which normally takes four days, in two days. The route accomplished will be transmitted in real time on the team’s website.

They will also attempt to break the Maltese record for walking along Malta’s perimeter in 14 hours. The public will have the opportunity to accompany the team for part of the route. The event, which will be held between 19 and 21 February, will end with the team spending the night in the blast freezer of Dew Fresh in Albert Town, Marsa.

On Saturday 20 February, the Team will be holding a number of family activities at various points on the track.

The public will also have the opportunity to get a feel of how cold Mount Everest is by spending 10 minutes in -45 degrees C in the freezer. The event will raise funds both for the team and also for the Richmond Foundation. The challenge is expected to cost around e100,000 and is being supported by Bank of Valletta and Duracell.

Mr Cremona explained that such a challenge is a symbol of national pride and usually other countries organise it on a national level and choose the best mountaineers to climb Mount Everest.

Gregory Attard, who is a doctor specialised in emergencies, saved the life of a climber who was suffering from altitude sickness on the base camp of Mount Cho Oyu. He was taken to a hospital in Kathmandu in a record two days.

Mount Everest was named after Colonel Sir George Everest, but previously it was called Sagarmatha, meaning Goddess of the Universe, and Chomolungma, meaning Mother goddess of the universe.