SEATTLE -- An 18-year-old student pilot from Friday Harbor who crashed a small plane in the snowy mountains of Montana alerted authorities with a text message from his cell phone.

Andrew Scheffer crashed Tuesday night, one hour into a solo training flight.

He hiked about a mile in waist-deep snow, wearing shorts and tennis shoes, after spending the night in near-zero temperatures at the crash site in the Pryor Mountains about 40 miles south of Billings.

Scheffer sent the message, "I've crashed and I am alive," followed by a phone call in which he said, "I'm with the aircraft, I'm cold and I have a sore shoulder," said Dan Hargrove, Director of Aviation for Rocky Mountain College.

Doctors told KTVQ Television in Billings, Mont., that Scheffer doesn't remember the crash because he suffered a mild concussion.

See pictures of the crash scene from the Billings Gazette.

Scheffer was treated for frostbite, cuts on his scalp and a bruised kidney. He was released from the hospital Thursday morning.