David Cifaldi, a nurse who specializes in wound care, self-rescues after slipping on Froze-to-Death Plateau and becoming impaled by a 44-inch steel-tipped trekking pole that pierced beneath his left arm and protruded from his back.He and two companions used a satellite communication device to notify authorities and then completed a difficult six-hour descent of about 10 miles and 5,000 feet to a trailhead, choosing self-rescue in part to avoid the high cost of a helicopter evacuation.Local
Search and Rescue monitored their progress, the pole was removed at St. Vincent Regional Hospital in
Billings, and
David Cifaldi has returned to work.