BARRIE, ONT. -- in the frigid waters of Lake Simcoe in Oro-Medonte Friday night.

Emergency crews rushed to an area near Woodland Drive and Line 15 South in the six o'clock hour after receiving a call that a snowmobile had gone through the ice.

OPP Const. Ted Dongelmans says two men had been sledding together when the ice gave way, but only one sled sank.

Dongelmans says the man who remained on the ice tried to pull the man in the water out but couldn't. Dongelmans says the man on the ice held on to the man in the water as they waited for help.

The Oro-Medonte Fire Department launched their airboat and pulled the man out of the water.

The man was taken to Orillia's Soldiers' Memorial Hospital with severe hypothermia, then airlifted by Ornge air ambulance to St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto in critical condition.

By late Saturday afternoon, his condition had stabilizedA man in his 50s is expected to survive after spending at least 40 minutes in the frigid waters of Lake Simcoe in Oro-Medonte Friday night.