A day out on the trail became a nightmare for one emergency room nurse after a fall left him impaled by his own trekking pole.
David Cifaldi, 36, was climbing Granite Peak in Montana with two friends on July 20 when the shocking accident happened on the state’s highest mountain.
Granite Peak stands at 12,799 feet in the Beartooth Mountains and is widely regarded as one of the toughest high points in the Lower 48, with a long, rugged approach over snowfields, boulder fields and high alpine terrain.
About ten miles into the demanding hike, Cifaldi slipped while moving over rocky terrain. At first, he did not think he had suffered a serious injury, but he quickly discovered the trekking pole had gone through his torso and was protruding from both sides.
Looking back on the incident, Cifaldi said:
“I just slipped on some rocks. It was just kind of a freak thing.
“I think my nurse brain clicked on. 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”
Speaking to Backpacker, the hiker explained that he was ‘pretty confident’ the damage was limited to soft tissue. Relying on his medical training, he made the call to leave the pole where it was and try to hike back down for help.
He later told the publication:
“At that point, I was up moving around, walking a little bit, and I was pretty confident that I could keep moving,”
Instead of waiting on the mountain, Cifaldi pushed through roughly another ten miles to reach safety. His friends alerted rescuers with a Garmin emergency communication device, and search and rescue teams were staged in case his condition worsened during the descent.
Jesse Ross, one of the friends with him that day, shared on a GoFundMe page that Cifaldi remained remarkably calm and upbeat throughout the descent.
Ross wrote:
“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 spirit,”
Ross also added:
“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.”
After more than six painful hours making his way down the mountain with the pole still lodged in his body, Cifaldi finally reached the trailhead and was taken to hospital.
Once there, doctors carefully removed the trekking pole. In Cifaldi’s case, the pole remained in place for about eight to nine hours from the fall until removal, and doctors used an inventive technique to withdraw it as safely as possible. Reflecting on how close it came to being much worse, he told KTMF how ‘lucky’ he feels, saying a ‘couple inches the other way, this would be a different story’.
Cifaldi could still need surgery later on, and a GoFundMe has since been launched to help with the cost of his medical treatment. The fundraiser says the money will help cover hospital bills, follow-up care and lost wages while he recovers.