A moonless night had fallen when I learned the true value of the LGVX6100. I'd spent a day climbing high above timberline and making calls. I hardly noticed the sun going down, thanks to the excellent reception and easy flip styling of this unit. But it had. The sun had gone down and I was three miles from my car with no sleeping bag nor tent and dwindling provisions. The trail was rocky and steep. I would need to drop 2500 feet in altitude before I could turn on the ignition and select a CD for the ride home.It was dark and getting darker. My attempts to step down the trail guided only by touch were unsuccessful. I tripped. I collided with a tree. I strayed into a patch of raspberry bushes. Cold panic was beginning to insinuate itself. I sat down to formulate a plan."What would Jim Bridger do?" I asked myself. Drawing a blank on that, I changed my search criteria. What would Kit Carson do? That was easy. He'd call the forest service, explain his situation, and then wait while the forest service rang up Fort Carson to have them send a rescue helicopter. Sure, they're $20,000 an hour, but what is a life worth? Besides, they used Kit's name for their fort, the least they could do was to send a chopper to save him from almost certain death.So I flipped open the VX6100 to make the call. I was mentally listing the items I would have to tell them to stock the helicopter with (insect repellent, Gatorade, Band-aids, flashlights, energy bars) when a wonderful thing happened. As soon as I flipped it open, the VX6100 cast a powerful glow of light over the 50-60 square feet directly in front of me. Thanks to the backlit screen and illuminated keypad, I could see! I sprang to my feet and began walking. After a few seconds it dimmed automatically to save the battery. That was easily fixed by pressing the PWR-END key, which restored the original radiance. Over the rest of that harrowing evening I was to repeat that simple formula over 300 times.Elated, I began my trek down the mountainside. Moments later, however, I had the sobering thought that, being used so rigorously, the battery might run dead, which would leave me again in the dark. So as a precautionary measure, I switched it back to digital, and resolved not to answer any calls nor even check voice mail until I was safely down to the trailhead.Two hours later I was down. The LGVX6100 had saved my life. Sure, it's got great features: the Caller ID, the Call Waiting, the bilingual capabilities, Voice Commands, the camera(its flash comes in handy if you have to cross a creek in the dark), the plethora of ring styles...the list goes on. But for me one feature towers above the rest: the backlit screen which can be used as a flashlight in emergencies! This phone turned what could have been a tragedy along the lines of "Into Thin Air" or "Shackleton's Voyage" into a mere close call. And when it was all over, there were still two bars showing on the battery icon. Thank you, LG Electronics. For other people LGVX6100 may be just another inscrutable hypertechnical moniker; for me it spells Trailblazer.