Man impales himself on trekking pole, hikes down Montana’s tallest mountain with it still in body

GRANITE PEAK, Mont. — An emergency room nurse survived a freak hiking accident on Montana’s tallest mountain by doing something few people could imagine — hiking 10 miles back to safety with a trekking pole impaled completely through his torso.

David Cifaldi, 32, was climbing Granite Peak with two friends on July 20 when he slipped on loose rocks at about 11,800 feet. The fall drove one of his trekking poles through his back and out his side, leaving roughly eight inches of the pole between the entry and exit wounds.

“I just slipped on some rocks,” Cifaldi told KTMF. “It was just kind of a freak thing.”

Drawing on his medical training, the emergency room nurse quickly assessed his injuries and realized the pole had missed vital organs.

“I think my nurse brain clicked on,” he said. “As soon as I was able to self-assess and establish that this was not life-threatening right now, I was pretty convinced I was going to get off that mountain under my own power.”

Rather than risk removing the pole, Cifaldi and his friends left it in place and began the grueling 10-mile hike back across snowfields, boulder fields and rugged alpine terrain. One friend used a Garmin inReach satellite communicator to alert Stillwater County Search and Rescue, while another stayed by Cifaldi’s side as crews monitored his condition every 30 minutes.

Despite the injury, Cifaldi remained calm throughout the six-and-a-half-hour trek. According to friend Jesse Ross, Cifaldi even asked one of the hikers to walk ahead near Mystic Lake so children on the trail wouldn’t have to see his injuries.

After reaching the trailhead under his own power, Cifaldi was driven two hours to a hospital in Billings, where doctors removed the trekking pole after it had remained lodged in his body for nearly nine hours.

“I feel very lucky,” Cifaldi said. “A couple inches the other way, and this would be a different story.”

Cifaldi is now recovering but faces significant medical bills and the possibility of additional surgery. Friends have launched a GoFundMe campaign* to help cover his medical expenses and lost wages while he heals.

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