Two Colorado college students die after rappelling accident on Ice Mountain

Colorado Mountain College students Kaden Matsuda, 19, of Ridgway, and Jackson Donlon, 20, of Queensbury, New York, were found dead after a rappelling anchor failed while they were descending a route on Ice Mountain in Chaffee County, officials reported Tuesday. The men were reported missing on Oct. 26, three days after leaving the college’s Leadville campus for a hike in the Rocky Mountains.

Sheriff Andy Rohrich said the anchor suffered a “catastrophic failure of unknown cause,” causing the pair to fall a substantial distance and sustain instant, multiple blunt-force injuries.

"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," Rohrich said.

The sheriff’s office confirmed that the students were experienced climbers who had planned to return after a day or two on the trail. Ice Mountain had received about two feet of snow at the time of the hike, but officials said the snowfall did not directly contribute to the accident.

Authorities later recovered Matsuda’s vehicle and the students’ tent, which had collapsed under snow weight, and subsequently located the bodies in a basin below West Apostle Mountain. The exact height of the fall was not disclosed.

"There are no right words to family and friends for a loss this heavy," Rohrich added, urging future backcountry explorers to remember the two men.