"The snow gave way beneath me and I fell down a very deep crevasse. After 70 feet it narrowed and I became stuck like a cork in a bottle between the walls. Fortunately the extra inches of the Blackberry were enough to block the fall." said the finance worker from Kensington, West London.

David broke his jaw, smashed his teeth, cracked a bone in his chest and nearly tore his nose off. His mountain guide made a distress call, and a mountain rescue team came to dig him out.

"I was stuck so fast they had to get a drill to dig away at the ice around me. I was eventually winched out by the helicopter rescue team."

He was flown to hospital suffering extreme hypothermia and concussion in Swiss capital Bern, where surgeons reattached his nose. David spent ten days in hospital - using the Blackberry to call his wife in the UK.

He said: "It was still working well enough for me to tell her I was alive. I couldn't believe it."

The Berry lucky David

On his return to the UK David wrote to Vodafone, who supplied the Blackberry, to thank them.

A Vodafone spokesperson said: "We are so pleased that our handset helped save this customer's life and then ensured he was able to call home to let his family know of his safe rescue.

Mr Fitzherbert is a very lucky man. It must be one of his favourite gadgets."