After a trekking pole went through his torso, this nurse hiked 10 miles to safety

A Montana nurse hiked 10 miles down Granite Peak with a trekking pole stuck through his torso after slipping near the summit. Staying calm, he checked his own injuries and made it to hospital, where doctors removed the pole nearly nine hours later.Montana nurse hiked 10 miles after a trekking pole went through his torso. (Photo: X)A dream climb up Montana's highest mountain became a life-or-death ordeal when a trekking pole pierced straight through David Cifaldi's torso after he slipped on loose rocks near the summit of Granite Peak. But instead of freezing in panic, the 32-year-old emergency room nurse quickly assessed his injuries, realised the pole had missed his vital organs and began an extraordinary 10-mile trek back down the mountain with it still embedded in his body.The gruelling self-rescue lasted six and a half hours across snowfields, boulder fields and steep alpine terrain before he finally reached safety.Cifaldi had set out before sunrise on July 20 with friends Jesse Ross and Brad Reich to climb Granite Peak, Montana's tallest mountain at nearly 12,800 feet. Reaching the summit had been a long-standing goal for the trio, who had already spent hours making their way through the mountain's rugged terrain.The accident happened roughly 1,000 feet below the summit after the group had already covered about 10 miles of the climb. As Cifaldi lost his footing on loose rocks, one of his trekking poles was driven completely through the side of his body. The pole entered beneath his left arm and exited through his lower back. The sight was horrifying, but Cifaldi's response was anything but. Rather than focusing on the shock of the accident, he immediately began checking for signs that the injury had damaged his lungs or other vital organs."I was able to feel the trekking pole through my skin," he told Backpacker magazine. "I was pretty confident that it was a soft tissue injury." He deliberately took several deep breaths, looking for signs of chest pain or difficulty breathing. When none appeared, he concluded that the pole had narrowly missed his lungs."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," he said.THE LONG WALK BACKRemoving the pole on the mountain was never considered. Doing so could have caused catastrophic bleeding, so Cifaldi and his friends left it exactly where it was. One of them used a Garmin inReach satellite communicator to alert Stillwater County Search and Rescue, while the group began the painstaking journey back to the trailhead.The route offered little relief. They crossed steep snowfields, unstable rocks and rough alpine trails, with every step carrying the risk that the pole could shift inside Cifaldi's body.To stabilise the injury, he improvised by using the chest strap from his running vest like a sling. One friend walked behind him throughout the descent, constantly watching for signs of bleeding or changes in his condition, while another moved ahead to monitor the trail and coordinate with rescuers, who checked in every 30 minutes through satellite messages.Despite the circumstances, panic never took over. Several hours into the hike, once they realised Cifaldi was likely going to make it off the mountain, the group even began joking about the situation."We were gonna make it," Cifaldi later recalled, saying they started "making kebab jokes" to lighten the mood.After finally reaching the trailhead, Cifaldi was taken to a nearby clinic before his friends drove him another two hours to a hospital in Billings. By then, the trekking pole had remained lodged in his body for nearly nine hours.Doctors carefully removed it during surgery, and remarkably, the injury had narrowly avoided damaging major organs.Although he is now recovering, doctors say he could require additional treatment as he heals. Friends have launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover his medical expenses and lost wages during his recovery.- EndsPublished By: Satyam SinghPublished On: Jul 30, 2026 00:33 IST