Mountains exist because the Earth has no hands to raise towards the heavens
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Jaroslav Obročník was born in Karlovy Vary on 25 August 1947. His parents Štefan Obročník and Marie Obročníková were Slovaks who had come to the Czech borderland after the war. In the early years, they moved often pursuing job opportunities. The father died in a mining accident in 1957 and the mother took up a three-shift job at the mine. Jaroslav and his sister Marie (three years older) fended for themselves, and Jaroslav realised the freedom he had gained. He and his sister spent their summer vacations with their grandparents in Slovakia, embracing the simple way of life, freedom and rugged nature. These experiences fundamentally shaped his outlook on life. Jaroslav was greatly influenced by his primary school teachers. He took up gymnastics and read a lot. He completed a high school of energy technology in Kladno. He joined the army in 1966 and formed a mountaineering club. They trained every weekend in the High Tatras. After his military service, he lived in Prague as a construction worker/scaffolder, keeping him in good physical shape and with lots of free time. Mountaineering governed his entire life. He became a member of the Czechoslovak national team in the early 1970s. He survived two lightning strikes while climbing. In 1974, he was one of six on an expedition to the USA to climb the El Capitan, for which the team received the Climb of the Year award. Jaroslav Obročník climbed most often with his Praga colleague Karel Schubert. However, he died on the Makalu in 1976. At that time, Jaroslav Obročník had a one-year-old son David and a newborn daughter Tereza with climber Jitka Obročníková, née Weberová. He shifted his focus to his family and built a house in Kacanovy near Turnov. His son Jan was born in 1978. In the 1980s, the witness organised Indian camps in the spirit of scouting and full-year scouting games. He married for the second time in 1990. His wife Dobromila gave birth to their daughter Jana in the same year. After the Velvet Revolution, he founded the leather-processing company Dobra. The couple built a house in Skalany with the money earned under a contract for the Police of the Czech Republic in 1992. In the latter 1990s, Jaroslav Obročník held the office of the mayor of Vyskeř, organized carnivals, acted in an amateur theatre troupe, founded an archery club and created one of the first archery parks in Bohemia. He handed his company over to his daughter Jana in 2015. In 2025, he was living in Skalany, managing the archery park, still organising carnivals and enjoying a large and successful family.
