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Hiking pole accident. This is how not to do it and how to do it.
Hiking pole accident. This is how not to do it and how to do it.
This accident shows the danger of using poles without a stop, like a basket or something. Of course if you want to penetrate an attacking animal, then go for it.
Well, no basket for one, but of course would a basket have twisted the point into the organs? How this happens is the pole point was aimed for the body and the body fell towards the pole.
If the poles are attached to the hands, then it probably couldn't happen. I'm not thrilled with that situation either, though, with the hands attached to the poles. Probably was carrying the poles horizontal when it happened, probably points forward, if I had to guess. Or points to the side, and then he fell sideways. Of course, people also use break-down poles now, which could make it more likely. Not a summer pole guy, myself.
A Montana man walked 10 miles to safety with a trekking pole speared through his torso after a fall during a hiking expedition on the state’s highest mountain.
David Cifaldi slipped on rocks close to the summit of the 12,803ft (3,902 meters) Granite Peak during the hike on 20 July with two friends. He fell on one of his two poles, and “by the time I rolled over, I kind of knew something wasn’t right”, he told CBS news affiliate KVTQ.
The pole had pierced him in the side below his left arm, pushed out through his lower back, and only narrowly missed vital organs.
“Through my skin, I could feel the trekking pole,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t deep, and I knew I could take deep breaths.”
An emergency room nurse trained in wound care, Cifaldi said his medical background took over, and he and his friends made the decision to hike for six and a half hours along the route they had climbed, after alerting authorities using a satellite communicator.
I have no idea but here's some speculation. Personally, from time to time I'll hold my trekking poles about halfway down the shaft if I'm in one of those "not now, but soon" points of using them. If he had just been ascending, so the poles may have been shortened, and he was holding them by the shafts when he fell, I could easily see something like this happening. No fault to the hiker, just a freaky accident.
My mind was wandering like the wild geese in the west.
So there you go, she got poked by the sharp end by carrying with the points backward, so that could be what happened. That is what happened. His pole entered from the front and went to the back, too.
So, moral of the story, when you're carrying "spears", don't be walking in the "direction" of those points that are pointing backwards. Partly you just always have to be aware of the dangers of these poles. Of course they are also extremely dangerous for people hiking with you, but that's another story.
If the poles are attached to the hands, then it probably couldn't happen. I'm not thrilled with that situation either, though, with the hands attached to the poles.
I never use straps of trekking poles.
However on March 20th, 2026 while hiking back from Giant to a trailhead on almost flat part of a trail, that has been covered by a lot of ice with fresh sprinkling of snow on the top, my right foot slipped.
I tried (and failed) to arrest my fall by holding on a vertical trekking pole with my left hand.
Outcome of this fall:
- Partial tear of my bicep, pectoralis and subscapular (part of a rotator cuff) and may be something else that has not been identified
- Initially I was not able to use my left hand at all
- I left one pole on the trail, because I was not able to collapse it
- I was able to walk to a trailhead on my own
- the next party brought this trekking pole to a trailhead, returned it to me and helped to remove Micrpospikes
- I learned that left hand is actually optional for driving. I drove back to Toronto without using left hand whatsoever.
Within a few days I was able to start gradually using my left hand.
I still attend physiotherapy sessions.
Left hand range of motion is noticeably limited and it's still painful e.g. while reaching behind my head, behind my back and behind my right shoulder.
LESSON LEARNED:
Upper body strength is important for hiking.
That sucks. Give it time. The older we get the longer we take to heal. I had a tailbone bruise years ago that took about a year to recover fully from. In recent years, I have had numerous minor injuries that have taken months to fully heal whereas when I was younger they would have taken a week or two. Aging just blows and injuries are harder to come back from.
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