RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Billings, Montana \u2014 David Cifaldi and his two hiking companions were crossing Montana\u0027s ominous Froze-to-Death Plateau and approaching the top of the state\u0027s 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\u0027s 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, \u0027We\u0027ve got to get off this mountain.\u0027 And they\u0027re both like, \u0027I don\u0027t know about that,\u0027" Cifaldi said of his friends\u0027 initial reaction. "I\u0027m pretty confident this is outside my chest wall. \u0027Tis but a flesh wound."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\u0027t 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 traveled about 10 miles and descended roughly 5,000 feet, the group reached a trailhead where one of them, Cifaldi\u0027s 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\u0027s the medical person. Our job is just to support at that point." Cifaldi had long wanted to climb Granite Peak. At 12,800 feet, Montana\u0027s 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 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\u0027s progress via a dispatcher who took calls from the group. The first call came in at 9:44 a.m. on July 20, right after Cifaldi impaled himself. At 1:30 p.m. 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\u0027t want our help and so we\u0027re not going to essentially violate his rights or go against his wishes by forcing our help on him," Williams said. By about 3:30 p.m., the hikers were in Ross\u0027 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\u0027 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 as he sat in Ross\u0027 front yard in Billings. "Search and rescue coming to help you is free. The flight\u0027s 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."\u00a0
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