Fatal Fall on Ice Mountain Claimed Two Colorado College Students After Anchor Failure
Two college students who went missing during an October hike in central Colorado fell to their deaths after a catastrophic anchor failure while rappelling, authorities confirmed Tuesday. Within Chaffee County’s Rocky Mountains, Kaden Matsuda, 19, of Ridgway, Colorado, and Jackson Donlon, 20, of Queensbury, New York—both students at Colorado Mountain College—dropped a significant distance.
The pair had left campus on October 23 for a hiking trip near Ice Mountain, planning to return a day or two later. When they failed to come back, the Colorado Mountain College Leadville Campus reported them missing to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office on October 26. Friends and family told authorities that both young men were experienced climbers who were properly dressed and carried a route map.
Investigation Details From Chaffee County Authorities
Search and rescue operations faced immediate complications from severe weather. Ice Mountain received roughly two feet of snow around the time the students were hiking. While authorities noted it remains unknown if the heavy storm directly impacted the accident, it did not play a direct contributing factor in their death. Last week, search crews located Matsuda’s car along with the hikers’ tent, which had collapsed under the accumulating weight of the snow near Lake Ann.
Colorado Mountain College students killed after fall while rappelling, investigators say pic.twitter.com/3U6A7VaZkt
Recovery teams eventually discovered the bodies of both men on Wednesday morning in a basin below West Apostle Mountain, located in the Sawatch Range of the central Rockies. The peak sits at approximately 13,600 feet elevation. The Chaffee County Coroner’s Office determined through autopsies that Matsuda and Donlon died instantly from multiple blunt force injuries.
Investigators examining the accident site pieced together the mechanics of the fall. The coroner’s office and sheriff’s department found that the rappelling anchor point experienced a catastrophic failure of unknown cause. Jackson Donlon was beginning to rappel from a primary anchor point on a rock substrate backed up by a piton and a secondary anchor made of rock substrate, while Kaden Matsuda was attached via his personal anchor device to those same anchor points.
While their lives were far too short, they spent their final moments together surrounded by the majestic beauty of Chaffee County’s high peaks that they loved. There is also relief knowing neither of them suffered, Chaffee County Sheriff Andy Rohrich said.
The Technical Realities of Ice Mountain
Local officials emphasized the severe terrain hazards associated with the location. Ice Mountain presents a demanding ascent, and officials advise that individuals attempting to navigate it in dry conditions possess a high level of climbing proficiency.
In his closing remarks, Sheriff Rohrich paid tribute to the deceased mountaineers by reflecting that whenever people journey into our backcountry ahead, they will view them as youths who didn’t simply observe the world, but scaled it.
