![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/this-photo-provided-by-david-cifaldi-shows-cifaldi-while-he-2UQPG4I5YRBXNMRWRTHSBBUX2E.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDavid 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.<\/p>\n
Warning: An image in this article may be confronting. <\/p>\n
The 112cm steel-tipped pole passed through the flesh beneath Cifaldi\u2019s left arm, missing any vital organs, and protruded from his back. After conferring with his friends \u2014 and considering the high cost of a helicopter rescue \u2014 Cifaldi knew who would save him: himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018We\u2019ve got to get off this mountain.\u2019 And they’re both like, \u2018I don\u2019t know about that’,” Cifaldi said of his friends’ initial reaction. \u201cI\u2019m pretty confident this is outside my chest wall. \u2019Tis but a flesh wound.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old nurse, who works in wound care at a Billings, Montana, hospital, did a self-assessment. He was alert. There was little pain or blood. And the pole wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Then they started hiking out. They carefully descended from the plateau along an unmarked route, navigating through boulders and snowfields before bushwacking their way to an established trail.<\/p>\n
After more than six hours in which they travelled about 16km and descended roughly 1500m the group reached a trailhead where one of them, Cifaldi’s friend Jesse Ross, had parked a vehicle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This photo provided by David Cifaldi shows Cifaldi while he was being treated Monday, July 20, 2026, at St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, Mont. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason it was possible at all was his confidence,\u201d Ross recalled. \u201cWho are we to say anything? He’s the medical person. Our job is just to support at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cifaldi had long wanted to climb Granite Peak. At 3900m, Montana\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
In 2019, authorities said a 65-year-old Minnesota man who was an experienced climber fell about 45m to his death after reaching nearly the top of Granite Peak with his son.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The first call came in at 9.44am on July 20, 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.<\/p>\n
“There was no danger to anybody else. He didn\u2019t want our help and so we\u2019re not going to essentially violate his rights or go against his wishes by forcing our help on him,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
By about 3.30pm the hikers were in Ross’ vehicle headed to the nearest clinic, Cifaldi said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Doctors removed the pole, bandaged him up and Cifaldi was back at work this week.<\/p>\n
“I think ,99 times out of a hundred, I would make the same decision,” Cifaldi said as he sat in Ross’ front yard in Billings. <\/p>\n
\u201cSearch 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Cifaldi and his two hiking companions were crossing Montana’s ominous Froze-to-Death Plateau and approaching the top of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-551942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}