Various Czech mainstream media reported that the Czech adventurer and traveller Pavel Trcala, who claims not to be a mountaineer, climbed Mount Everest without the permit from China two weeks ago.
He claims to be there as a member of the support staff for Ukraine-Czech expedition and his Polish friend Przemyslaw Orcholski, who had the permit but was too exhausted to continue, asked Trcala to bring his expensive camera from the high camp and perhaps to reach the summit. And that is what Trcala claims he did on 30 May 2005.
The ascent sparked criticism from Czech mountaineers, members of an expedition to Everest that did not succeed due to bad weather. Josef Simunek, the head of the Himalaya 8000 organization, who has recently returned from an unsuccessful bid to scale Everest said that Trcala's explanation to go for the camera is a lie and that his illegal ascent was an international scandal.