Published October 29, 2026 05:08PM
On October 28, rescuers found the bodies of two missing Colorado Mountain College students in a basin on West Apostle Mountain, a remote peak in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, northwest of Buena Vista.
Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, had planned to climb nearby 13,960-foot Ice Mountain but were reported missing on October 26, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office.
Matsuda and Donlon left Colorado Mountain College’s Leadville campus on October 23, planning to return on October 24 or 25, depending on conditions. Friends told investigators the pair had shared a map identifying Ice Mountain as their intended destination.
Ice Mountain, West Apostle, and North Apostle make up the Three Apostles, a rugged trio of 13ers in the Sawatch Range. Less famous than Colorado’s 14ers, the peaks attract climbers seeking more challenging terrain and solitude.
“That’s the allure of doing peaks that aren’t 14,000 feet. They’re less popular, they’re more remote, and they’re more technical,” Dillon Geiger, owner and chief guide at Buena Vista-based Ark Valley Mountain Guides, said.
Geiger, an American Mountain Guides Association-credentialed guide with more than a decade of alpine guiding and climbing instruction experience, works throughout the Sawatch Range. He described the Three Apostles as unusually rugged for the area, with steep gullies, loose rock and couloirs, including Ice Mountain’s Refrigerator Couloir, a well-known backcountry ski descent.
Why Climbers Seek Out the Three Apostles
Colorado’s 14ers attract hikers seeking the state’s famous 14,000-foot summits, many with relatively accessible, nontechnical routes, according to Geiger. But elevation doesn’t necessarily determine difficulty, he said. The Three Apostles, though shorter than the 14ers, offer steep, rocky terrain and require more advanced mountaineering skills.
According to mountaineering database 14ers.com, Ice Mountain’s standard northeast-ridge route involves scrambling, requiring climbers to use their hands to navigate steep, sometimes exposed rock. The website also warns of substantial rockfall risk and challenging route-finding, including bushwhacking.
Even in Colorado’s popular Sawatch Range, Geiger says that climbers visiting the Three Apostles in late October might spend an entire day without encountering another person.
“They’re certainly some of the most remote sections of the Sawatch Mountains. It’s an extremely remote area, and this time of year, it wouldn’t be uncommon to not come across anyone else,” Geiger said.
While experienced mountaineers can sometimes complete these climbs in a day in favorable summer conditions, backpacking into the basin and attempting a summit from camp isn’t uncommon.
But the mountains become a different undertaking in winter conditions.
Early Snow and Unstable Rock
The National Weather Service forecast several inches of snow at higher elevations in the eastern Sawatch Mountains on October 24, the day after the students set out. In Colorado’s high country, changing weather can quickly make an already difficult climb all the more dangerous.
“When you step into technical terrain and the weather changes, especially winter weather conditions, it gets bad fast,” Geiger said.
Fresh snow can conceal loose rocks that can easily slip beneath a climber’s feet, he explained. Repeated freezing and thawing can further destabilize rock, increasing rockfall hazards and complicating route-finding.
A Multi-Day Search in Heavy Snow
Both students were preparing for careers in the outdoors. Matsuda was studying to become a wildland firefighter, while Donlon was training to become a mountain guide, Sheriff Andy Rohrich said in an October 27 Facebook update.
“We are devastated by the loss of Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon, two members of our Colorado Mountain College community,” the college said in a statement provided to KKTV.
After college staff reported the pair missing on October 26, deputies found Matsuda’s vehicle near the Mount Huron trailhead outside Winfield, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office. Searchers later discovered their collapsed tent near Lake Ann. Investigators also found no climbing equipment in the students’ tent, vehicle, or dorm rooms, which the sheriff’s office said suggested they had taken it on their climb, officials wrote.
Heavy snow and ice complicated the search. Ice Mountain received up to two feet of snow, with some piles building up to four feet in places. Roughly 60 search-and-rescue volunteers participated in the operation, supported by helicopters, drones, and search dogs, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office.
“Foul play is not suspected, and we will not offer theories as to what may have happened until an autopsy can be completed,” the sheriff’s office said in its October 28 statement. The agency is working with the Chaffee County Coroner’s Office to investigate the deaths.
