A Montana emergency nurse survived a freak mountaineering accident on July 20, 2026, after falling onto his hiking pole during an ascent of Granite Peak and then walking 16 kilometres back to safety with the pole still embedded in his body.
David Cifaldi, 32, slipped on a rock at roughly 3,600 metres elevation and impaled himself on the pole, which pierced his latissimus dorsi muscle, exiting both sides. He stabilised the shaft using his backpack strap and, alongside two friends, navigated snowfields and scree over roughly six and a half hours to reach a waiting ambulance. The pole narrowly missed his ribs, lungs, and major blood vessels; Cifaldi later said he would have died had the impact been three centimetres off.
Surgeons at a Billings hospital removed the pole hours after the accident. A friend has set up a fundraising page to help cover medical costs.