This week, officials released autopsy results for the two college students who recently died while hiking/climbing up Ice Mountain, a 13,958-foot peak in Colorado. According to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon died from a climbing accident and not extreme weather conditions on the mountain.
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“On November 2nd, 2026, an autopsy was conducted to determine the cause of death of Kaden Matsuda (age 19 from Ridgway, CO) and Jackson Donlon (age 20 from Queensbury, NY) the two Colorado Mountain College Students from the Leadville, CO campus who were recovered from a basin of West Apostle Mountain in Chaffee County on October 29th, 2026,” the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post sharing the news. “[. . .] The autopsy showed that the cause of both their deaths was multiple blunt force injuries and their deaths were instant.”
[RELATED: Two Young Colorado Hikers Found Dead on Ice Mountain]
According to the post, Donlon was rappelling from a primary anchor point on a rock substrate. A piton and a secondary anchor backed up the primary anchor. Matsuda was attached via his personal anchor device to the same anchor points, as well as the primary anchor point.
“The anchor had a catastrophic failure of unknown cause,” the release says. “Both then fell a substantial distance (exact distance unknown). It is unknown if the heavy snowstorm had a negative impact leading to the incident, but it did not play a direct contributing factor in their death.”
Read the full press release below.
Header stock image by Patryk_Kosmider/Getty Images
