A Prayer for R.J. Secor

May 14, 2005

By Bump Diamond
Man About Town

    I am writing this on a lovely spring evening in the Mammoth high country.
    From my window I can see Mammoth Mountain, and around the bend, the Sherwin Range, and I’m thinking about R.J. Secor, the mountaineer and author.
    Mammothist Bill Cox, a fine mountaineer, turned me on to R.J. Secor three years ago. “This is really the one for-sure book you need,” said Bill Cox, holding up a worn copy of Secor's book, “The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails. ” 
    Secor was seriously injured April 16 when he slid more than 1,000 feet down a snow-covered slope in a backcountry area of Mt. Baldy.  Secor, 48, of Pasadena, apparently lost control during a seated glissade — a maneuver that mountaineers use to descend a steep or icy slope.
    And now here I am, looking out a window, with his book in the foreground. I feel shitty, and it’s remarkable, because I’m feelin’ bad for R.J. and I have never met him.
    Nevertheless, here is an update on R.J. Secor's condition following his glissading accident in Baldy Bowl, from Ken Murray, M.D.:

    “I went to Kaiser Sunset to see R.J. today.
    “I met with his mother and father, his trauma surgeon, and the nursing director of the ICU, where he is located. His mother specifically asked me to post this about his condition, to let people know how he was doing.
    “He remains in stable condition. His skin wounds have largely healed. He is on a ventilator, and heavily sedated, and can not really be aware of one's presence meaningfully.
    “He is on the ventilator to reduce the pressure on his brain, brought on by multiple skull fractures, and bleeding into the brain tissue. The bleeding has stopped. He may have had mild pneumonia, but that seems to be controlled at this point.
    “The hour spent with him was sobering. He is severely injured. He will require a significant time to recover, I'd guess, by what I saw. His mother prefers that optimistic possibilities be contemplated, and that seems reasonable at this stage of things. Much more will be known when he is able to be taken off the ventilator and the sedation stopped.
    “I was under the impression that his parents were very grateful for the messages they'd received, and the visitors who had come.
    “His mother specifically asked me to impart her request for your
prayers.”