Montana man hikes out of the mountains to get help after he was impaled by a trekking pole

(AP) — 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 (112-centimeter) 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' 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. 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 traveled about 10 miles (16 kilometers) and descended roughly 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), 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.

Our job is just to support at that point.”Cifaldi had long wanted to climb Granite Peak. At 12,800 feet (3,900 meters), 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 150 feet (45 meters) 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 … The 44-inch (112-centimter) steel-tipped pole passed through the flesh beneath Cifaldi’s left arm, missing any vital organs, and protruded from his back. “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.

’Tis but a flesh wound.” The 32-year-old nurse, who works in wound care at a Billings, Montana, hospital, did a self-assessment. After more than six hours in which they traveled about 10 miles (16 kilometers) and descended roughly 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), 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.

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 dispat…