A Blizzard Did Not Kill Two Missing Colorado Climbers. A Broken Anchor Did.
The two Colorado Mountain College students found dead in Colorado’s Sawatch Range last week fell to their deaths after a climbing anchor failed on West Apostle Mountain, authorities announced November 3.
Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, died instantly from multiple blunt force injuries, according to a November 3 joint statement from the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office and Coroner’s Office.
“Kaden and Jackson lived life at the highest peaks chasing freedoms and panoramic views that most of us only see in pictures,” Chaffee County Sheriff Andy Rohrich said in the statement. “We hope their families and friends find strength in the memories of their vibrant spirits.”
The findings provide the first official explanation of what happened to the two friends, whose disappearance prompted a dayslong search involving multiple agencies working through heavy snow and treacherous mountain terrain.
What Investigators Found
According to the release, investigators pieced together what happened on West Apostle Mountain, the 13,597-foot peak where the students were climbing after leaving Colorado Mountain College’s Leadville campus on October 23.
The pair were descending the mountain when Donlon began to rappel, using a rope secured to an anchor in the rock to lower himself down the steep terrain. Matsuda was clipped into the same anchor system through his personal anchor device.
The setup appeared to have two backups, including a piton—a metal spike driven into rock—and a second rock anchor. But despite those apparent safeguards, the anchor system suffered what investigators described as a “catastrophic failure,” sending both climbers falling down the mountainside.
Authorities have not determined why the anchor failed or exactly how far the students fell.
Search crews discovered their bodies on October 28 in a snow-filled basin below West Apostle Mountain. A helicopter recovered them the following day.
“There are no right words to family and friends for a loss this heavy,” Rohrich said in the statement. “Know that whenever we explore our backcountry in the future we will think of them as young men who didn’t just look at the world; they climbed it.”
Did the Snowstorm Play a Role?
As Outside previously reported, a powerful early-season snowstorm dumped up to two feet of snow on the mountains, complicating the search and raising questions about what happened to the climbers.
Investigators now say the storm was not a direct contributing factor in the students’ deaths.
In his November 3 statement, Rohrich also praised the students’ preparedness, saying his staff had found no obvious mistakes to point to.
“Kaden and Jackson will certainly be remembered by my staff as an example to others of what preparation looks like,” Rohrich said. “In most similar cases that have led to a devastating conclusion we find it easy to pick apart what was done wrong. That was not the case with Kaden and Jackson.”
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