About a week before you start make sure that your fridge is at 40c its ok if it fluctuates abit up or down. But don't let it go down to freezing.
I usually start at the later end of November (some people start earlier than this)
From the day you start stop feeding your tortoise DO NOT give him anything else to eat.
Put some warm water in an old bowl, or your sink or your bath, and soak him in this for an hour, as the water goes cold renew it to warm water again. (Dry him well after bathing) After the bathing hour put him back to his warm place and with the filter light still on.
The next day leave him in his vivarium etc with the heater and his filter light as you would do normally. BUT DO NOT FEED. Remember this is all being done to empty his gut.
The next day repeat as the first day, bathing for an hour. The warm water stimulates their insides making them want to go toilet. Don't worry if he doesn't go every time. Put him back to his warm place and with the light on.
The next day leave him again. NO FOOD. But with heat and light.
Repeat this until you have bathed him 5 times.
On the 5th and last bathe when you have bathed him for an hour, dry him well and put him back to his vivarium with NO heat and NO light.
The next day put him in a nice sized cardboard box with plenty of ripped or shredded paper and put the box on a shelf in the fridge, keep a thermometer in there to keep an eye on the temperature. He might do some roaming around in the box to start with don't worry he will settled in time. He might even dig through the box, just renew the box and try again.
After about a month or two judging on how you think he is doing, (I check them after a week for the first week then after about a fortnight after that) take him out of the fridge, and leave him overnight with NO heat or light. Remember he has been very cold for a long time and his body has to have time to acclimatize again.
The next day put him in some warm water and let him drink, leave him to drink as much as he will, sometimes they don't seem to want to drink, after about half an hour dry him and put him back into his warm vivarium, and with the light on, and give him something to eat. He should recover quite quickly, but don't worry some times it can take a few days for them to get back to normal. Make sure you do try him again with some water to drink, this gets their gut working again.
I always weigh them before i put them into hibernation and after, so i know if they've lost any weight in hibernation, mine usually loose around nothing to 25grams but even up to 50grams is ok. It's a good idea, to weigh them but that is totally up to you.
Try not to feel nervous about the hibernation prossess, as believe me it does get easier.