A freak hiking accident left an ER nurse skewered by his own trekking pole, forcing a life-or-death decision and a grueling 6 1/2-hour journey to safety.
Keep reading to learn more.
A day of hiking with friends on Montana’s tallest peak turned into a survival story for David Cifaldi after a fall left a trekking pole driven through his torso.
The 32-year-old was climbing Granite Peak with two friends on July 20 when he “slipped on a small loose rock” about 10 miles into the hike. In an instant, one of his trekking poles reportedly pierced his side, leaving him stranded high on the mountain with a serious injury and a long journey back to safety.
“It was just kind of a freak thing,” the Billings man told KTMF of the accident where a pole had skewered the middle of his back.
But instead of panicking, Cifaldi said his years working as an emergency room nurse immediately kicked in.
“I think my nurse brain clicked on,” he told the outlet. “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.”
‘Sticking out both ends’
Before turning around to hike about 6 1/2 back to the trailhead, Cifaldi said he took some deep breaths as he tried to determine whether the pole had punctured his chest or a lung.
“I was pretty confident that it was a soft tissue injury,” he told Backpacker magazine.
To get a better look, his friends photographed the pole protruding from his body and shared it with Cifaldi, allowing him to make a diagnosis.
The trekking pole had passed “all the way through his lat, sticking out both ends, with roughly 8 inches between the two holes,” his friend Jesse Ross explained in a GoFundMe, organized to support his medical needs as he recovers.
Trusted medical instincts
“He self-assessed calmly: no bleeding, full feeling, no lightheadedness, nothing vital hit, and the pole stable in place,” explained Ross, who was on the hike with Cifaldi.
Trusting his medical instincts and training – and determining the injury had not damaged a vital organ – Cifaldi decided to cross the snowfields, boulder fields and rugged terrain that separated the group from safety, with search and rescue on standby.
“Given his condition, he made the call to self-rescue rather than wait for extraction – hiking 10 miles back to the trailhead with a trekking pole still through his body,” Ross continued on the fundraiser, that as of July 28, has raised close to $5,000 of its $8,000 goal.
‘Remarkably high spirits’
Looking back, Cifaldi recalled exactly how he felt in that moment.
“At that point, I was up moving around, walking a little bit, and I was pretty confident that I could keep moving,” he told Backpacker.
To help support the pole while walking, Cifaldi used the chest strap from his running vest as a makeshift sling, while one friend stayed close behind to watch for any signs of serious bleeding.
As the hours passed and the group realized they were likely going to make it out safely, they even found a way to lighten the mood.
“We started making kebab jokes,” Cifaldi recalled, while Ross later praised his friend, writing that he was “remarkably high spirits.”
“David navigated the plateau’s snowfields and boulder fields, made his way down past Mystic Lake, and reached the trailhead entirely under his own power – never once complaining, staying in remarkably high spirits. Near Mystic Lake, he even asked one of us to hike ahead and warn other hikers, so no children would have to see the wound,” Ross wrote on the fundraising page.
‘Very lucky’
More than six hours after the accident, the group finally reached the trailhead, where Cifaldi was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Intermountain Health in Billings. Doctors safely removed the trekking pole, and according to Ross, he continues receiving treatment and could still need surgery.
Looking back, Cifaldi knows how close the accident came to ending very differently.
“A couple inches the other way, and this would be a different story,” he told KTMF, adding that he feels “very lucky.”
Despite everything he went through, the ordeal hasn’t scared him away from Granite Peak.
Instead, Cifaldi says he plans to return next year and finish the climb he never got to complete.
Please share your best wishes for Cifaldi in the comment section and then pass this story along so others can do the same!
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