A 17-year-old skier who got lost from the Sugarloaf ski resort in Maine was found alive after surviving two nights in the wilderness by building a snow cave, obtaining drinking water from a stream and walking toward the sound of snow mobiles during the day, officials said.

Nicholas Joy, of Medford, Mass., was found on a trail west of Sugarloaf Mountain by a snowmobiler at roughly 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Fox News reported.

Joy was transported to the Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington in order to be evaluated, said search coordinator Lt. Kevin Adam. 

The frigid weather conditions were so bad that the search had to be postponed on Sunday and Monday nights, and Joy was said to have survived by building a snow forte that he used for shelter. 

Joy was in "remarkably good shape" for spending two nights out in the wild and it helped his survival that the winds weren't as strong toward the valley as they were up on the mountain, Adam said.

"But he did the right thing in building a snow cave, and obviously he's still alive to talk about it, so he made some good decisions," he added.

Joy and his father had separated on Sunday after taking the chairlift to the top of the mountain and then separate trails down in what was supposed to be the last ski run of the day.

The two were planning to meet in the Sugarloaf parking lot and make the drive back to Massachusetts but the father called for help when the son never showed up. It later turned out that the boy mistakenly skied off of his trail and ended up down the west side of the mountain prior to realizing that he couldn't make it back to the general ski trails.

Tags: offbeat