A mountain climbing trip with friends turned into a horrifying test of survival for a Montana nurse who was forced to hike more than 10 miles with a trekking pole lodged through his torso.
David Cifaldi, 32, was climbing Granite Peak, Montana’s tallest mountain, with two friends on July 20 when he slipped on loose rocks and fell onto one of his own trekking poles.
The group was about 10 miles into the demanding climb up the 12,799-foot mountain when the pole pierced Cifaldi’s side and went completely through his back muscle.
“It was just kind of a freak thing,” the Billings resident told KTMF.
Despite the shocking injury, Cifaldi said his medical training immediately took over.
“I think my nurse brain kicked on pretty quick,” he told Backpacker magazine. “I was able to feel the trekking pole through my skin.”
He took several quick breaths to determine whether the pole had punctured his chest or lung. His friends also took photographs of the wound so he could get a better look at the damage.
Jess Ross, one of the friends hiking with Cifaldi, later wrote on a GoFundMe page that the pole had gone “all the way through his lat, sticking out both ends,” with about eight inches separating the entry and exit wounds.
“I was pretty confident that it was a soft tissue injury,” Cifaldi said.
Once he determined that the injury did not appear immediately life-threatening, Cifaldi made a remarkable decision. He would walk himself off the mountain.
“At that point, I was up moving around, walking a little bit, and I was pretty confident that I could keep moving,” he recalled.
With the trekking pole still impaled through his body, Cifaldi and his friends began the grueling journey back toward the trailhead.
The group spent more than six hours navigating snowfields, steep slopes and massive boulder fields. Cifaldi used the chest strap from his running vest as a makeshift sling, while one friend stayed close behind him to watch for signs of heavy bleeding.
Several hours into the descent, the hikers became confident they were going to survive the ordeal and even began making “kebab jokes” to keep their spirits up.
Ross said Cifaldi completed the entire descent under his own power and remained remarkably calm throughout the emergency.
He reportedly never complained and even asked one of his friends to hike ahead near Mystic Lake to warn other people on the trail so children would not have to see the gruesome injury.
After finally reaching the trailhead, Cifaldi was taken to a local hospital and later transferred to Intermountain Health in Billings. Doctors were able to safely remove the trekking pole.
Cifaldi continues to receive medical treatment and could require additional surgery, according to the fundraising page created to support his recovery.
Looking back on the freak accident, Cifaldi said he knows the outcome could have been far worse.
“I feel very lucky,” he told KTMF. “A couple inches the other way, and this would be a different story.”
The terrifying experience has not ended his desire to conquer Granite Peak.
Cifaldi said he plans to return next year and finish the climb he was forced to abandon.
