The Challenge8000 team left for Nepal yesterday to scale the world's sixth highest mountain in the run-up to the Maltese climbers' attempt to summit Mount Everest in spring 2010.

Through Challenge8000, three Maltese climbers are attempting expeditions to an elevation of over 8,000 metres into what is known as the Death Zone. The project also marks the first attempt by Maltese climbers to scale the highest mountain in the world.

The team set off to challenge Mount Cho Oyu, standing at 8,201 metres in the Himalayas, an expedition that should require between seven and eight weeks, depending on weather and mountain conditions.

The team, composed of medical doctor Gregory Attard, 32, engineer Marco Cremona, 40, and business systems consultant Robert Gatt, 38, is flying to Kathmandu, then driving north towards the Tibet border town of Zhangmu and onwards to Nyalam, 35 kilometres away.

The next stop would be Tingri, the base town for expeditions heading towards the north side of Everest and Cho Oyu and then Chinese Base Camp, a grassy plateau along the foot of the Gyabrag glacier and the end of the road for motorised transportation.

Cho Oyu advanced base camp is two days away and, at 5,600 metres, is as high as Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe.

Life on the expedition is expected to be "hard, dangerous and trying. It will require lots of walking, with lots of clothes on and lots of heavy gear; everyone has a fair chance of some serious disease or injury that could easily turn fatal".

The climbers know it will require absolute confidence in their guide and lots of team work. But that should not be the hardest part as they have known each other for ages through mountaineering. Besides their individual fitness regimes, they have been training together on several small expeditions and camps. They also have varied experience, skills, physiques and temperaments, which they plan to pool.

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