A teenage climber has been rescued after breaking his femur, strapping his legs together with his shoelaces and dragging himself by his elbows part of the way down a mountain in search of help.

Wanja Drees, 19, was almost at the summit of New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu on Sunday morning when he slid and fell 50 metres, crashing into an outcrop of snow and ice, the Waikato Times reported.

After losing his mobile phone in the fall he was unable to call for aid. "I slipped down 50 metres and hit a big rock in the snow. I screamed a lot and SOS very loudly and after half an hour no one came," said Drees, who is German and lives in New Zealand.

Drees used his shirt to stem the bleeding from an open fracture to his femur, and created a splint for the broken limb by tying his other leg to it with his shoelaces. Using his elbows to stop him slipping down the snow and ice, he dragged himself towards help.

Eventually his cries were heard by a man and his daughter who were near a cafe on the mountain, who went to investigate and alerted the emergency services. A rescue helicopter reached Drees during a short break in the weather, and he was flown to Rotorua hospital.

Constable Conrad Smith, of the national park police, said: "Quite possibly, tying his legs together like that saved his life."

He added: "I only had a brief conversation with him and he was pretty pumped up with drugs when I saw him, but he seems like a bit of a character.

"There's a few lessons that people can take on board from this. Although we are almost into summer there is still a lot of snow and ice near the top of that mountain. This guy was only of slight build … he did have a good jacket on and some other gear. But you definitely don't want to be hiking up the mountain if you have only got some street or skate shoes on."