David Cifaldi was hiking with some buddies through the cartoonishly nicknamed Froze-to-Death Plateau in Montana when he slipped and impaled himself with his trekking pole, according to a report from The New York Times.
Appropriately enough, the 32-year-old Cifaldi is a wound care nurse when he’s not hiking. His experience came in handy when the 44-inch steel-tipped pole stabbed him straight through his torso beneath his left arm and came out through his back.
He calmly examined himself and concluded that the pole had missed his lungs and any other vital organs, so he decided that the best course of action was to hike about 10 miles back down the mountain with the stick sticking out of his torso like an ancient soldier refusing to remove an arrow.
Hiker Walks 10 Miles After Trekking Pole Impales His Torso
Remember, he had two friends with him, and they weren’t exactly thrilled with that plan, but this guy gets paid to treat wounds, so they just assumed he knew what he was talking about and rolled with it. Using a satellite communicator, they got in contact with search and rescue, who monitored the group’s progress as Cifaldi completed the trek under his own power.
This was no hop, skip, and a jump through a field of flowers. The descent took more than six hours as the trio had to march across boulders, snowfields, and rough backcountry. All of which would’ve been arduous on their own, but was probably just a wee bit harder with a metal spike sticking out of your chest.
Cifaldi not only survived the journey, but doctors later removed the pole at the same hospital where he works. Since no vital organs were pierced, he went back to work later that week. His only parting lesson to other hikers is to carry a reliable way to contact emergency services, especially in remote areas where cell phone signal can fail.