David slipped and impaled himself on a metre-long hiking pole – then climbed 16km off the mountain

Warning: Graphic content

Billings, Montana: David Cifaldi and his hiking companions were crossing the ominous Froze-to-Death Plateau and approaching the top of the state’s highest peak when the adventure took a bizarre and dangerous turn.

He slipped and, as he fell, impaled himself on his 112-centimetre-long, steel-tipped trekking pole.

The pole passed through the flesh beneath Cifaldi’s left arm, missing any vital organs, and protruded from his back. After conferring with his two friends – and considering the high cost of a helicopter rescue – Cifaldi knew who would save him: himself.

“I was like, ‘We’ve got to get off this mountain.’ And they’re both like, ‘I don’t know about that’,” Cifaldi said of his friends’ initial reaction. “I’m pretty confident this is outside my chest wall. ’Tis but a flesh wound.”

The 32-year-old nurse, who works in wound care at a hospital in Billings, Montana, did a self-assessment.

He was alert. There was little pain or blood. And the pole wasn’t moving. The group used a satellite-based communication device, a Garmin inReach, to contact local authorities and inform them of their plan to self-rescue.

Then they started hiking out. They carefully descended from the plateau along an unmarked route, navigating through boulders and snowfields before bush-bashing their way to an established trail.

After more than six hours in which they travelled about 16 kilometres and descended some 1500 metres, the group reached a trailhead where one of them, Cifaldi’s friend Jesse Ross, had parked a vehicle.

“The only reason it was possible at all was his confidence,” Ross recalled. “Who are we to say anything? He’s the medical person. Our job is just to support at that point.”

Cifaldi had long wanted to climb Granite Peak. At 3900 metres, Montana’s tallest mountain is prone to unpredictable weather including dangerous lightning storms and bitter cold.

Hundreds of people annually try to reach the rocky summit; many come up short. In 2019, authorities said a 65-year-old Minnesota man who was an experienced climber fell about 45 metres to his death after reaching nearly the top of Granite Peak with his son.

As Cifaldi and his companions started hiking out, the pole awkwardly sticking out of his side, Stillwater County Search and Rescue team commander Ty Williams monitored the group’s progress via a dispatcher who took calls from the group.

The first call came in at 9.44am on July 20 (Montana time), right after Cifaldi impaled himself. At 1.30pm, the trio said they were getting closer to the trailhead and to let the nearest hospital know they were coming, Williams said.

“There was no danger to anybody else. He didn’t want our help and so we’re not going to essentially violate his rights or go against his wishes by forcing our help on him,” Williams said.

By about 3.30pm, the hikers were in Ross’ vehicle headed to the nearest clinic, Cifaldi said.

When they arrived, they were told Cifaldi needed more advanced treatment in Billings. So they got back in Ross’ truck and kept driving to the hospital where he works, St. Vincent Regional Hospital.

Doctors removed the pole, bandaged him up and Cifaldi was back at work this week.

“I think 99 times out of a 100, I would make the same decision,” Cifaldi said as he sat in Ross’ front yard in Billings.

“Search-and-rescue coming to help you is free. The flight’s not. That was a factor in me deciding to self-rescue. But the fact that I had two experienced great friends with me and we had the ability to contact search and rescue if something went wrong made that a lot more of an easy decision.”