STODDARD, N.H. (AP) – Despite being seriously injured in a crash, a snowmobiler was able to drag himself to a cabin, start a fire and – in all probability – save his life, authorities say.

Michael Fleming, 35, of Stoddard, was recovering Friday at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene after an eight-hour ordeal that began Wednesday at 11 p.m., according to Lt. Roger A. Turcotte of the Stoddard Police Department.

Fleming was traveling back from Washington, N.H., on a snowmobile trail near Stoddard Lake when he came over a rise and slammed into a tree that had fallen across the trail, Turcotte said.

“The machine went airborne one way and he went another, also airborne,” Turcotte said.

Fleming landed in a pile of debris and suffered five or six broken ribs, major internal injuries, back and neck pain, and cuts and bruises, Turcotte said.

When Fleming hadn’t returned home by 4:30 a.m., his wife called friends who ride in a snowmobile club with her husband. One of the riders left from Stoddard and the other left from Washington, riding the route Fleming was supposed to be on.

They found his crashed machine, and followed the trail Fleming made when he dragged himself through the woods.

The path led to a closed-up summer cabin, where Fleming had broken a window to get in and started a fire to keep warm, Turcotte said.

That probably saved Fleming’s life, he said.

“He had some hypothermia, but not bad,” Turcotte said. If he hadn’t gotten out of the cold, “we’d have probably found a body,” he said.

Fleming was taken out of the woods at 7 a.m. and taken to the hospital. Turcotte said Fleming was expected to recover from his injuries.

“It was a very close call,” he said. “The angels were with him.”