David Cifaldi impaled himself on a trekking pole while attempting to climb Montana’s highest summit
BILLINGS: David Cifaldi and his two hiking companions were crossing Montana’s ominous Froze-to-Death Plateau and approaching the top of the state’s highest peak when their adventure took a bizarre and dangerous turn: Cifaldi slipped and impaled himself on his trekking pole as he fell.The 44-inch steel-tipped pole passed through the flesh beneath Cifaldi’s left arm, missing any vital organs, and protruded from his back. After conferring with his 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’ reaction. “I was confident it was outside my chest wall. It was a flesh wound.”The 32-year-old nurse, who works 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 bushwhacking their way to an established trail. After more than six hours in which they travelled about 16 kilometres and descended roughly 1,500 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 was just to support at that point.”Cifaldi had long wanted to climb Granite Peak. At 3,900 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. 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.”There was no danger to anybody else. He didn’t want our help and so we didn’t force 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 hundred I would make the same decision,” Cifaldi said. “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.”
