Chaffee County Students Found Dead on West Apostle Mountain

Gunnison —Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon are dead.

The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Department confirmed the discovery Wednesday night. Searchers located the bodies of the two Colorado Mountain College students in a basin on West Apostle Mountain. They were found near each other.

This is a hard fact. Five days passed between their disappearance and their recovery.

Here is the timeline. Donlon, 20, from New York, and Matsuda, 19, from Ridgway, left Leadville on Oct. 23. They planned a weekend hike near Ice Mountain, which peaks at 13,960 feet. They expected to return in two days. They did not.

A storm hit Saturday. It dropped one to two feet of snow. The pair was caught in it.

Family members called law enforcement Monday morning. By then, three days had vanished.

Dozens of search and rescue crews from multiple agencies joined the effort. The search spanned Chaffee and Gunnison counties. Officials initially focused on the area where the men’s tent was found. That clue pushed the search toward West Apostle Mountain, which stands at 13,597 feet.

The sheriff’s office released a statement on social media. It was careful. Too careful?

“We will not offer theories as to what may have happened until an autopsy can be completed,” the office said.

Read that again. No theories. Not yet.

Foul play is not suspected. That is the current official stance. But an autopsy is pending. A detailed investigation will proceed in partnership with the Chaffee County Coroner’s Office.

Chaffee County Sheriff Andy Rohrich addressed the public Wednesday night. His words were heavy.

“Our heart aches for Kaden and Jackson’s family and friends,” Rohrich said. “We are very proud of our team’s efforts to find them before this weekend’s coming storm.”

He called the discovery a "gut punch," but also a prayer answered. He asked the community to grant the families time and distance as they mourn.

Colorado Mountain College issued its own statement. The school noted that Matsuda was training to become a wildland firefighter. Donlon was studying to be a mountain guide.

Officials had hoped their specific training would help them survive the sudden snowstorm. It did not save them.

The college expressed gratitude to the search and rescue professionals and volunteers. It pledged to provide emotional support to students, faculty, and staff in the difficult days ahead.

The pair had left maps and detailed trip information behind. Those documents likely guided the initial search parameters. But the mountain kept its secrets for five days.

West Apostle Mountain is near Ice Mountain. The terrain is rugged. The weather turned fast. One moment clear, the next buried under two feet of white.

The bodies were found Wednesday afternoon. The announcement came Wednesday night. The storm that trapped them is a memory now. The next storm is coming this weekend.

The search ended. The investigation begins.

Matsuda and Donlon are in a basin on a 13,597-foot peak. They are near each other. They are gone.

The autopsy will tell us what happened. Until then, the sheriff’s office offers no theories. Just the facts. And the silence of the mountain.