Sunburnt but with beaming faces, the four Maltese mountaineers who conquered Mount Everest last month were welcomed with balloons and applause by their families and friends at Malta International Airport this afternoon.

Gregory Attard, Raphael Fenech Adami, Matthew Xerri and Douglas Barbaro Sant left Malta in April to scale the highest point on earth. And they were successful in their attempt.

They reached their aim not without problems on the way and two physically and emotionally taxing moments were the red tape and bureaucracy they had to face for their routes to be fixed and using up all their oxygen and coming face to face with a blizzard.

Dr Attard said that at one point the team gate crashed at an abandoned tent 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 advanced base camp.

The team scaled the mountain from the northeast ridge route in Chinese-ruled Tibet. In 2010, Dr Attard had summited together with Marco Cremona and Robert Gatt from the southeast ridge route in Nepal.

“This time, apart from a mountaineer and medic, Dr Attard was also the group leader.