We live in the future.
Selfies have become a cultural cancer, what with folk obsessively turning cameras back on themselves to capture every last expression, but in snowy British Columbia selfies can also save lives and let us learn the very wonderful story of a snowboarder out alone in the backcountry near Cypress Provincial Park.
It is there that an avalanche trapped him, burying him to the waist, but he was able to retrieve his phone and call his girlfriend who, in turn, called the police. The man then snapped a photo of his location allowing rescue teams to spot him from the air and scramble a ground team which pulled him out hours later.
A doctor on the scene declared he was in serious, but stable, condition with a fractured pelvis and other injuries.
North Shore Rescue team leader Mike Danks said the whole business was very complex involving avalanche experts, a doctor, an emergency room nurse, paramedic and multiple rope rescue teams as well as ski patrol.
He added when in backcountry trouble the first call should be to 911.
Not the girlfriend.
Apparently.