Most of us respond to a minor hiking stumble with a colorful word and a bruised ego. David Cifaldi, a Montana nurse, responded to his stumble by becoming one with his trekking pole — and then just sort of… kept going.
Cifaldi was doing what any perfectly reasonable outdoors enthusiast does on a weekend: scaling Granite Peak, Montana’s highest mountain at a lung-punishing 12,799 feet. He was about 10 miles into the climb with two friends when he slipped on some rocks. So far, so relatable. What happened next, however, is where this story takes a sharp turn — much like the trekking pole that had apparently decided it preferred the inside of Cifaldi’s torso to the outside.
“I just slipped on some rocks,” Cifaldi said, with the kind of casual understatement usually reserved for people describing a minor coffee spill. “It was just kind of a freak thing.”
When he picked himself up, he noticed one trekking pole lying innocently on the ground. The other had impaled him in the side. As one does.
Here’s where Cifaldi’s career choice proved to be either remarkable foresight or the universe having a very specific sense of humor: the man is a wound-care nurse. His medical training kicked in immediately, allowing him to assess the situation with professional calm rather than the screaming panic most of us would consider entirely appropriate.
With his friends by his side — bless those friends, truly — Cifaldi then did something that would make any sensible person question everything they know about human pain tolerance: he hiked more than 10 miles back out to safety.
Ten. Miles. Impaled.
Cifaldi is now recovering and, presumably, reconsidering his relationship with trekking poles. The mountain, for its part, remains at 12,799 feet and utterly unimpressed.
*Source: Local 12 News
Original story via Reddit Offbeat
