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Horrific cause of death revealed for college students who went missing on Ice Mountain climb
Two Colorado Mountain College students who disappeared during a hike on Ice Mountain died after their rappelling anchor failed, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office. The finding explains how the experienced climbers fell and were killed during their attempt to climb a peak close to 14,000 feet.
Jackson Donlon, 20, and Kaden Matsuda, 19, fell a substantial but undetermined distance into a mountain basin. Investigators said Donlon was starting to rappel from an anchor system that included a piton and a secondary rock anchor; Matsuda was attached to the same points. Autopsies found both died instantly from multiple blunt force injuries, and authorities said neither suffered. A heavy snowstorm was present, but its role in the anchor failure is unknown; the students’ bodies were found five days after they left campus.
In short
- Two students died after their rappelling anchor failed.
- The fall distance and cause of the failure remain unknown.
- Authorities said both deaths were instant and neither suffered.
Explained simply
Ice Mountain is a high peak in Colorado’s Sawatch Range, and climbing it can involve steep rock and exposed sections. Rappelling is a way to descend a cliff on a rope, secured to an anchor fixed to the rock.
Jackson Donlon and Kaden Matsuda were students at Colorado Mountain College and experienced climbers. In a climbing accident, an anchor failure can cause a climber attached to the rope to fall; investigators have not established what role, if any, the snowstorm played in this case.
The sheriff’s office investigates deaths and missing-person cases in Chaffee County, where Ice Mountain is located. Its findings help explain what happened during the climb and inform the official record of the deaths.