Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 29, 2010 - 02:24pm PT
|
UPDATE: Eric Volz in the Bay Area Tonight and Tomorrow
Tuesday June 1st / SANTA ROSA
5:00-7:30pm
BORDERS Bookstore,
2825 Santa Rosa Avenue,
Santa Rosa, CA
707.569.0991
Wednesday June 2nd / SAN RAFAEL
7:00-9:00pm
Borders
588 Francisco Blvd
West San Rafael, CA 94901
415.454.1400
Hi Forum,
"Can Climbing Save Your Life?" details how climbing helped Eric Volz with his epic ordeal in Nicaragua prison. Eric is a friend who I met climbing in South Lake Tahoe. We went on to have a bunch of adventures in Tahoe and the High Sierra before he move to Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, Eric went on to experience a nightmare that he recounts in his new book "Gringo Nightmare" that launched yesterday.
I HIGHLY recommend checking out this web site that has details on buying the book as well as videos and interviews of Eric's story http://gringonightmare.com/
Many of you may know Eric or know of him by the stories posted here on SuperTopo over that last years. Here is a link to some of them
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=328594
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=356140
Can Climbing Save Your Life?
by Smith Curry
If you're wanting to train for a marathon, a double century bike race, or a 5.13 sport climb, you'll find a plethora of books, guides and websites all with specific instructions. But how would one best train for spending a year in a violent Nicaraguan prison with a price on one's head?
After being wrongfully convicted in a kangaroo court of the rape and murder of his former girlfriend, American ex-pat Eric Volz found himself relying on the skills and strengths, (both physical and mental) learned and earned from years of climbing. His conviction and thirty year sentence were eventually overturned, but not before Eric's sanity and survival were tested each day in every possible way.
When I met Eric in 1995 at Nashville's Classic Rock Gym, he was the most ambitious of a group of strong high school kids who were regulars there in the bouldering cave. That Spring another climber his age led a tricky 5.10 pitch at the local crag on only two pieces of gear. Volz went out the next weekend and led it on one.
After graduating high school, Eric moved to California's Lake Tahoe area where he fell in with a group of climbers whose idea of a good day out was to tie on rock shoes and a chalk bag, then free solo thousands of feet of Sierra granite. The thrill of moving rapidly over the sun-warmed stone, combined with the endorphin rush of an endurance sport, topped off with a jolt of adrenaline from the massive exposure, had Eric hooked. As his fingers strengthened on these outings, his mind did as well.
“It's about complete compartmentalization--- there is no room for distraction... If you're thinking about what's going to happen if you fall, you're NOT thinking about how to make the next move. You absolutely can't let fear, fatigue, or cold distract you from making logical decisions upon which your life depends. In fact, when you're in the zone, the fear and adrenaline get channeled into concentration, focus, and strength,” Eric remarked.
Over the next several years Volz logged miles and miles moving over stone, sometimes with a rope, sometimes without. Climbing everything from hard boulder problems to speed ascents of Yosemite's Half Dome, his confidence skyrocketed along with his ability to ignore cold, fatigue, hunger and fear.
Author and big wall maestro Chris McNamara told me that before they met and climbed together, he had heard that Volz had soloed a lot of the 5.9's at Lover's Leap in the Lake Tahoe area---some which had overhanging cruxes three pitches off the deck. “I knew he had a strong head... It's one thing to solo a single pitch route or a highball boulder problem, it's another to keep your mind focused for ten minutes when a fall is unthinkable. Not a lot of people can do that, and the people who can, usually only do it for short windows of time, and at their choosing... but he did it for over a year in Nicaraguan prison, and it certainly wasn't at a time or circumstance of his choosing!”
While in California, Eric became more interested in his Hispanic roots and enrolled in UCSD's Political Science department where he immersed himself in border studies. After meeting numerous Latin-American dissidents and human rights activists who put their lives on the line for the betterment of others, climbing began to seem self-indulgent and trivial. With a desire to facilitate change and document injustice, Volz began traveling widely as a journalist and filmmaker with excursions to destinations as diverse as Iraq, the Dominican Republic, and much of Central America. In 2005 he moved to San Juan, Nicaragua to launch a bilingual magazine called El Puente -- The Bridge. The purpose of El Puente was to span the gap between locals and North Americans, whether they were visiting tourists or possible investors, and Eric soon found himself deeply involved in both the magazine and local San Juan life.
Eric Volz's world collapsed on November 21, 2006 when Doris Jimenez, 25, a lively, attractive clothing boutique owner was raped and strangled in her shop. Eric and Doris had dated off and on, and due to much anti-American sentiment in the area, Volz was arrested the same day he carried her coffin. The wildly popular Nicaraguan tabloids went berserk with the news, and Eric was crucified daily in the press.
At a December 7 hearing, organizers for the newly re-elected Sandinista party brought in truckloads of protesters to surround the courthouse. After two of the locals also charged with the crime were released, Volz was left stranded with only his wits, strength and speed to save himself from the angry mob of over three hundred, many who were wielding machetes and shouting “Bring out the gringo!” Sprinting for his life (with the sole security officer assigned to protect him trying to keep up), he managed to outdistance his pursuers and barricade himself in a gymnasium until the officer was able to contact the local police. As the rabble proceeded to break through the door, a careful examination of options led Eric to smash an interior office wall in order to escape the building and meet a police vehicle out back.
At his subsequent trial, a mountain of evidence exonerating him (including a dozen eyewitnesses placing him hours away in Managua at the time) was dismissed, while no evidence putting him at the scene of the crime was presented. The verdict: guilty. The sentence: thirty years.
Legendary Yosemite climber Warren Harding once said that big wall climbing consisted of hours and hours of boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror. As it turns out this is a fairly apt description of prison life. During the course of his year-long incarceration he was held in a total of six different facilities, and they ranged from the reasonable to the abominable. After the US embassy remonstrated the Nicaraguan government after his near-death experience at the hands of the mob, the Nica authorities retaliated by sending him to the most feared and brutal of all prisons: Chipote.
It was in Chipote that Eric faced the most horrific and grueling conditions one can imagine. He was placed in a cement box for over a week at a time; food was withheld (unless you count the scorpions placed in his cell by his captors), and he was given muddy water to drink. Temperatures were controlled to maximize pain and discomfort. Water was sprayed into the cell and bright lights were kept on for days to create sleep deprivation: treatment considered torture by all international human rights organizations. Eric soon lost track of time and in the bewilderment and stupor, his mind reverted back to his climbing days. No longer was he caged inside a cement vault, but was laying in a small cave carved into a granite face. Gone were the sinister machinations of an evil government, now he was just part of an expedition gone wrong, stormed in, food depleted: bleak, but he would survive just as other mountaineers had before him. The fantasy kept him going until they came and took him away.
After rejoining the rest of Chipote's population, conditions were continually grim and frequently life threatening. Misguided relatives of the deceased had put a bounty on Volz's head, so every move made around the rest of the prison population had to be calculated and cautious. Like a long expedition climb, both perseverance and vigilance became crucial: try to keep weight on, try to keep your food down, get rest when you can, BUT, be ready to jump at an instant's notice. The mental toughness acquired through years of hard climbing continually helped Eric. No sleep? Just like Half Dome. Really thirsty? Sounds like Mt.Conness. Shivering cold? Surely not as bad as Keeler Needle. OK the hunger was getting bad, REALLY bad... worse than ever before, but he HAD been hungry in the mountains.
“I had a mental bookmark of what it's like to suffer on climbs... a reference point. Had I been a tennis player all my life, I wouldn't have had that orientation. It was just enough to help me keep my sanity.” Eric said recently.
Like an unending climb with multiple unexpected cruxes, each new jail brought fresh challenges and objective hazards. Fights in prison are as inevitable as storms in the mountains, can erupt just as quickly and be just as deadly. At Granada, his newest cage, Eric was soon moved to a room holding fifty men, which unfortunately had only been designed for thirty. Minutes after being thrown in the cell, while Volz was relieving himself in the bathroom, a prisoner walked over and brazenly stole some cookies a visitor had given him. Politely but firmly he asked for his food back. The inmate just laughed in his face and denied taking anything while his compadres snickered behind him. Eric realized this was a watershed moment and if he didn't confront his adversary, he would be antagonized by the other inmates mercilessly... everybody wants a piece of the gringo in here he realized. Taking a calculated risk against his scarred, streetwise opponent, he shoved him back with both hands. The guy came back swinging with a demented, crooked smile on his face and connected to the side of Eric's head. The cell erupted with shouts of excitement, but as Eric was preparing to return blows the guards stepped in and dragged him out the door to yet another cell.
While his appeal process dragged on interminably through the broken Nicaraguan justice system, Volz was taken to La Modelo, Nicaragua's equivalent of San Quentin or Attica. Gang killings were commonplace, dense smoke hung in the air from constant crack abuse, incessant screaming and banging on the bars prevented sleep, and the standing water in cells attracted unbelievable swarms of mosquitoes and flies. Throw a neurotic, sadistic, warden into the mix and that's what Eric's next thirty years looked like.
While learning to survive in a place rife with deadly violence, Eric soon discovered some of his greatest foes were microscopic... giardia, dysentery, and other parasites all began taking their toll. No matter how much of Modelo's inedible gluey mass of beans and rice he managed to keep down, Volz continued to lose weight. Here, Eric's lifetime devotion to fitness worked against him: since he began his incarceration with less than ten percent body fat, he was losing muscle rapidly just when he needed it most. In point of fact, 1960's British mountaineering nonpareil Don Whillans would arrive at all expedition's base camps thirty pounds overweight on the assumption that the rigors and toils of establishing camps up the peak would strip away his fat while consuming his (fit) colleague's muscle. Numerous summit photos show Whillans grinning, fit as a fiddle, while an emaciated partner shivers next to him. At his sickest Eric had lost twenty pounds of lean body mass, and endured a litany of illnesses caused by hideously unsanitary prison conditions. An inflamed colon, a kidney stone, gastritis, severe dehydration, asthma, pulmonary infections, and stomach ulcers were added to the extensive list of painful ailments he endured.
Many climbers strive to go up on climbs with increasingly less gear and equipment, relying more and more on their own strengths and abilities, thereby discovering more about themselves. Free soloing is this ideal taken to the limit, and the possibility of death engenders contemplation of a spiritual dimension. Jeff Lowe once wrote, “The soloist embarks on a journey of self-discovery”, and indeed many soloists have had deep spiritual revelations during their ascents. In his amazing account of life in Auschwitz “Man's Search for Meaning”, Viktor Frankl describes finding purpose in life only after being stripped of everything and facing death daily.
Eric says, “I still hadn’t gotten used to the complete absence of all the things in life that provided the feedback a person uses to define themselves. Magazine, job, internet, clothing style, friends, lovers, family, community—all the stuff we use to help us manufacture our illusion of joy, importance, success—it was all gone.” With all distractions removed, Eric concentrated on the two things that mattered: survival and God. “What had been missing all along from my life was the quest for holiness.”
Meanwhile, Eric's case had become a political bargaining chip that the increasingly radical Ortega regime was apparently using for leverage in negotiations with the U.S. regarding SAM 7 missiles. In fact, most of the prisoners and guards now referred to him as the reo politico.
While his mother worked tirelessly from the outside attempting to secure his freedom with grassroots methods such as Facebook and Friendsofericvolz.com, Eric helped direct efforts from the inside. Working informants and trying to corroborate a myriad of rumors and innuendo regarding purportedly corrupt judges and government officials, while also working with his chief “fixer” ex-C.I.A. operative Bob Lady, Eric's case had taken on the dimensions of a LaCarre spy novel. Both approaches started to bear fruit: Volz's plight was featured on shows ranging from The View, to Anderson Cooper 360, while several powerful Nicaraguan personalities took up his cause and started applying pressure on the appeal judges to render a fair verdict.
On Dec. 17, 2007 the Nicaraguan Appellate Court overturned the lower court’s decision and ordered his immediate release, but like the cruelest of false summits Eric remained in La Modelo. The judge who convicted Volz initially, Ivette Toruno, following orders from the Sandinista Party leaders, stalled Eric's release by illegally hiding the case file for nearly a week. After being unlawfully imprisoned for five more days Eric Volz was released on December 21 at 2:00pm. In true cliffhanger fashion, Eric was rushed to the airport barely escaping the hordes of protesters, news vans, and bloodthirsty demonstrators.
Climbers returning home from an expedition frequently experience a jarring paradigm shift upon re-entry into normal society. As Mark Twight writes in Extreme Alpinism “The dramatic change in surroundings may not match an equal shift in your own consciousness. It takes time and effort to readjust. Those who did not participate in the experience cannot truly understand what you have been through, and you will find it difficult to communicate. You may miss the life-and-death decision making of the climb, the genuine consequence of your actions.”
Arriving in New York after his return from Nicaragua, Eric was featured on numerous news programs and talk shows. While he welcomed the opportunity to tell his side of the story and help educate Americans about the political problems facing Nicaragua, the glitz and glamor of the city was mind boggling. Just being outside and seeing the sky was an enormous shock after a year in confinement, and here he was thrust into the limelight in one of the world's biggest cities. Waiting in every green room were bowls of fruit bigger and more sumptuous than the ones populating his dreams in Chipote, and bottle after bottle of clean, cold water glistened in buckets of ice while plates of canapés beckoned from every table. The wealth and abundance and availability of everything made Eric feel as if he were in a dream.
“It’s been a struggle re-entering the free world. It’s a lot harder than one would think,” he said on the Today Show. “Every day I feel better. Physically I feel stronger, and I feel lighter every day.”
Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there: Eric is still on the climb. In Spring 2008 after the US cut aid to the Sandinista regime (in response to rigged elections) Volz's case was re-opened. The Supreme Court of Nicaragua began to consider the prosecution's motion to reverse the appeals verdict in his case a full year after the motion had been submitted. President Ortega fanned the flames with anti-American rhetoric and Doris's mother along with some woman's rights groups, took to the streets protesting Eric's freedom. Government influenced newspapers ran stories about the killer still at large as well as showing polls indicating 75% of Nicaraguans believe Eric is guilty. Until Eric Volz's rights are recognized and his proven innocence is accepted by the Ortega regime, Eric will always be looking over his shoulder---always trying to make it down to basecamp.
“Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how.'” Viktor Frankl
|
|
Jingy
Social climber
Nowhere
|
|
|
Apr 29, 2010 - 04:02pm PT
|
bad ass...
thanks Chris Mac...
good thread..
checking out book sale now..
|
|
happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
|
|
|
Apr 29, 2010 - 04:10pm PT
|
Difinitely a "must read" book.
|
|
Daphne
Trad climber
Mill Valley, CA
|
|
|
Apr 29, 2010 - 04:16pm PT
|
Wow. An inspiring story. Thanks so much for posting this and alerting me to this book.
|
|
CBclimber
Trad climber
Crested Butte,CO
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 11:42am PT
|
Great story! I think I'll head over to the library and check out the book! This is why I always read the Supertopo emails I get. Thanks Chris.
|
|
TripL7
Trad climber
san diego
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 12:00pm PT
|
Thanks Chris, I am going to enjoy this, and I hope I can be of some help!!
|
|
gonz
Trad climber
yosemite
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 12:10pm PT
|
I was in Nicaragua in San juan del sur over last winter for a couple months, where this all took place. I heard many stories and met other people that knew eric and the girl and some were involved in this mess one way or another . The majority of nicaraguans are not the biggest fans or mr volz.... If you talk to locals its one story and if you hear Erics story its another.
|
|
couchmaster
climber
pdx
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 03:26pm PT
|
Holy F*ing sh#t.....I was holding my breath as I read that.....WOW! Welcome back to the world Eric, I'd sent a letter a long time ago protesting your railroading, but had literally forgotten all about your plight recently. Glad that worked out for you, I can't even imagine what you must be feeling now. Makes you wonder how many other of our country men are currently getting that injustice shaft daily right at this very moment.
|
|
tim_b
Trad climber
Corona, CA
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 03:46pm PT
|
Sitting here at work at my desck on a Friday ... I read EVERY word and my "mouse" hand is dripping in sweat ...
Great story Chris. You always take me right there in the action. AND Volz is a massive stud ..
|
|
karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 03:47pm PT
|
That was him?!!! I heard about his story on a news report a while back and just felt so sorry for the dude. Now that he's been through that, hopefully the good things in life fall upon him. Good luck Eric.
|
|
Cpt0bvi0u5
Trad climber
Merced CA
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 03:48pm PT
|
Great story! I hope everything works out for him.
|
|
gonzo chemist
climber
Crane Jackson's Fountain St. Theater
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 04:53pm PT
|
holy schitballs! that story is crazy! I'm glad to hear Eric made it back to the states in one piece. But man, what an insane, grueling experience...
|
|
pc
climber
|
|
|
Apr 30, 2010 - 06:54pm PT
|
Thanks for the tip Chris. What a nutso story!
|
|
krutley
climber
here, now
|
|
I'm sitting in a "luxury" hotel room in Bettiah,W. Champaran, Bihar, India as I read this post, unable to go to the field because of Naxal insurgent threats and angry village mobs who think our soil-testing devices are eithr bombs or poison, or are lighting their mud/thatch huts on fire. The 4 Indian geologists whose actions I direct and whose safety is my responsibility have had numerous incidents with mobs of 400 - 2000 wishing to chop them up or beat them to death with bamboo sticks, only to be given last minute reprieves from local "police" (unarmed, uniformed locals who serve as mediators). At this point I serve daily time in this room, as I am no longer able to go to the field with any assurance of safety - I stand out pretty well, Casper the Friendly American.
After one month, and at least another to go, as usual, my climber's attitude and experience is the foundation, strength and intuitive basis of every in-the-moment decision I make here, backed by my spiritual beliefs. I wasn't aware of Eric's story, but can relate on a small level to his trials, trauma and disassociation from his former life and perceptions upon his "release" from prison. Bless your Heart, Eric. You're in my Heart and prayers.
You try to explain your situation, you write about it, people interrogate you for numerous motives, and in the end, you're alone in your experience. It requires real strength (and time) to reconcile that, every time and then, even more challenging, to let it go.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
And to all those idiots in those other threads that always say there's no hell.
WTF do you think Eric Volz went thru ............
|
|
thuronsim
climber
|
|
Great post, time to buy the book and read the rest of his story.
|
|
R.B.
Trad climber
West
|
|
Oh the things we N.Americans take for granted. What a story! Gotta read it.
|
|
GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
|
|
Geez...
|
|
neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
|
|
hey there chris... say, i remember when this as posted here... and all us folks, those that knew him, and those that didnt, were very much worried as to the outcome, and then, the joy that went out when he was really home...
very hard sad scary stuff....
god bless him with a new and strong new life, after all this
awful stuff...
thanks for sharing all this...
god bless...
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!