Personally I was happy to emigrate
Ivan Exnar was born in December 1944 in a Prague family of army lieutenant. During 1950s his father was imprisoned in work camps for seven years. Due to cadre reasons the witness was not accepted to gymnasium and apprenticed in Spolana Neratovice; in evenings he finished graduation exams. By 1964 he started studying at the High School of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. Since his childhood, Ivan Exnar devoted himself to climbing mountains and in August 1968, he was hiking in the French Alps and never came back to the Czechoslovakia. He applied for asylum in Switzerland and settled down in Basel, where he finished high school. Later he got a doctorate in chemistry - PhD. Professionally he devoted himself to applied research of battery packs, for clock industry (Renata AG - Swatch group) or car industry. Sport has had an important place in his life as he has devoted himself to gliding and mountain climbing, both at professional levels. His best climbing successes were Mount McKinley in 1976 and Lhotse in 1979. He is the holder of the Czech climbing altitude record of Lhotse - 8516 m above the sea level (1979-1983). He lives in the Swiz Itingen (canton Basel-village).