There are those who say cats cannot be relied upon because they’re only out for themselves.

But the tale of a Hungarian hiker has poured scorn on such suggestions. For it was a friendly feline in the Swiss resort of Gimmelwald that led him from the mountains to safety when he suffered a sprained ankle and lost his way.

The Reddit user, known only as sc4s2cg, happened upon the black and white cat when exploring the Bernese Oberland. He was unsure how to get back to his hostel after finding that the only trail back had been closed.

“[The cat] was just wandering around, [then] found me while I was resting from a hike,” the traveller said.

“Then he was walking and kept looking at me to follow [and] led me straight to the path that would take me back down to the valley.”

The man filmed his adventures with the moggy, uploading the video onto YouTube with English subtitles showing the meeting with the cat that saved him from a cold night in the hills.

The Swiss village of Gimmelwald Credit: Fototlia/AP

Once the pair had reached the path into the village the cat seemed to lose interest and the pair parted ways, with the man saying: “Till we see each other again.”

The post on Reddit led to other users revealing that they too had met the Gimmelwald cat, which appears to belong to one of the owners of one of the hostels in the town.

The thread also led to comments on the good looks of the Swiss region, with one user claiming it to be the “most beautiful spot on earth”. Gimmelwald sits at the foot of the Unesco World Heritage site, the Jungfrau-Aletsch region.