Kaden Matsuda & Jackson Donlon: Lost on Ice Mountain

 

Caption: Case card for DHF-015 — Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon, Chaffee County, Colorado. Status: FOUND DECEASED.

# DHF-015 — Kaden Matsuda & Jackson Donlon: Lost on Ice Mountain

Case No. DHF-015 | Subject: Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon | Date: 23–28 October 2026 | Location: Ice Mountain / West Apostle Mountain, Chaffee County, Colorado, USA | Status: FOUND DECEASED

Posted: 29 October 2026

Status stamp: FOUND DECEASED

Image note for readers: All images in this file are original illustrations created for Dark History Files. They are atmospheric artwork, not photographs and not real evidence. No image in this file depicts Kaden Matsuda, Jackson Donlon, any member of any family, or any real person, and no image depicts any act of violence or any death.

## THE FILE CARD

Case File No.: DHF-015

Subject: Kaden Matsuda, 19, of Ridgway, Colorado; Jackson Donlon, 20, of New York

Date: 23 October 2026 (departure); 26 October 2026 (reported missing); 28 October 2026 (found deceased)

Location: Ice Mountain and West Apostle Mountain, Chaffee County, Colorado, USA, about 100 miles southeast of Aspen

Status: FOUND DECEASED

Investigating authorities: Chaffee County Sheriff's Office; Chaffee County Search and Rescue, with search teams from neighbouring counties

Foul play: Not suspected, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office. The exact cause and manner of death had not been determined at the time of writing and await autopsy.

One-line summary: Two Colorado Mountain College students, 19 and 20, left campus on 23 October 2026 for a weekend hike up Ice Mountain; a snowstorm hit the next day, their tent was found collapsed under snow on 27 October, and on 28 October 2026 searchers found both young men dead in a basin of West Apostle Mountain.

Why this file is stamped FOUND DECEASED: The stamp records only what the authorities have confirmed — that both young men were found dead on 28 October 2026, and that foul play is not suspected. It is not a finding about how they died. The Sheriff's Office has said it will not offer theories about what happened until an autopsy can be completed, and this file follows that same discipline: the cause and manner of death stay in the Still Unknown section until the coroner states them. If the autopsy findings are released, this file will be updated, dated, and re-stamped if the facts require it — never quietly rewritten.

## THE CASE

### Two students, one weekend plan

Kaden Matsuda was 19, from Ridgway, Colorado, and was studying to become a wildland firefighter. Jackson Donlon was 20, from New York, and was studying to become a mountain guide. Both were students at Colorado Mountain College's Leadville campus, and both were described by people who knew them as experienced hikers. Those two facts — their ages and their training — are the reason this file is hard to read, and the reason it is worth writing carefully. These were not strangers to the mountains. They were young men preparing, in their studies, for working lives in them.

On Friday 23 October 2026, Matsuda and Donlon left the Leadville campus for a weekend hike. Their destination, as family and friends told authorities, was Ice Mountain, a nearly 14,000-foot peak on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in Chaffee County. The Sheriff's Office describes Ice Mountain as a very technical climb, recommended only for advanced hikers when it is dry — and the weekend it was chosen was about to stop being dry. Before they left, the two young men sent friends a text message with a map showing Ice Mountain as their destination, with an area near Winfield circled, potentially indicating where they would go in and camp, according to the Sheriff's Office as reported by PEOPLE. They had, in other words, done the thing every safety guide asks of a backcountry traveller: they told people where they were going.

Their plan, as friends described it to authorities, had a built-in decision point. If they did not feel safe, they would return on Saturday. If conditions were good and they continued to Ice Mountain, they would return on Sunday. That conditional plan matters, because it tells the reader something the rest of this file will keep returning to: these were not careless plans. They were plans with an exit, made by people who understood the mountain they were walking into. What nobody's plan contained was the speed of what happened next.

### The storm that changed the mountain

On Friday, it rained. On Saturday afternoon, at around 1 p.m., the rain turned to heavy snow. The Sheriff's Office described the resulting road conditions as horrific, and the snowfall on the mountain as one to two feet, with deeper drifts in places where wind piled the snow — three or four feet in some drifted areas, according to the Sheriff's Office as reported by PEOPLE. For a mountain that is a technical climb when dry, that is not a change of weather. It is a change of terrain: rock and trail under ice and snow, boulder fields buried, and a route that had been a climb becoming something else entirely.

The first hard evidence of when the two young men had passed through came from something they left behind. When deputies found Matsuda's vehicle at the trailhead, there was about eight inches of snow on the ground around it, but none underneath it. The vehicle, in other words, had arrived before the snow. That single observation fixed the sequence: they had driven in on Friday, in the rain, and the storm had arrived after them. It also told searchers something less comforting — that by the time anyone knew they were missing, the mountain they had walked into no longer looked like the mountain they had planned for.

On Monday 26 October, at about 10 a.m., staff at Colorado Mountain College reported the two students missing. They had not returned on Saturday or Sunday, and nobody had heard from them. Cell phone data showed that neither young man's phone had been used in at least 48 hours. The Sheriff's Office noted that this did not necessarily mean the phones were dead or lost: the two may have turned their phones off to preserve battery life, because service in the area would have been almost nonexistent. That detail is included here because it closes off a line of speculation before it starts. A silent phone in that terrain is not, on its own, evidence of anything except remoteness.

The search that followed was large and, by the Sheriff's Office's own account, constrained from the start. About 60 searchers worked the area, drawn from search and rescue teams in Chaffee County and neighbouring counties, with helicopters, drones, infrared technology and search dogs. But the Sheriff's Office was frank about the limits: to reach the mountain on foot, teams would have to cross boulder fields now covered in snow, making it extremely dangerous and virtually impossible, and there was nowhere on the mountain a helicopter could land to bring staff in. On the first day of searching, drones, helicopters, infrared equipment and dogs found no trace of the two young men, and no human tracks were found in 

the snow.

Caption: Illustration of a snow-covered mountain basin in a storm — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of Ice Mountain or West Apostle Mountain and not evidence.

### The tent, and what it said

On Tuesday 27 October, a helicopter spotted an object near Lake Ann, and a search team reached it on foot. It was Matsuda and Donlon's tent, collapsed under the weight of the snow. Inside were their sleeping bags, a stove and some clothing. The two young men were not there. Two observations from that tent, both given by the Sheriff's Office, carry the weight of this file's middle chapter. First, there was no snow under the tent, and no visible footprints in the snow around it — which suggested, in the Sheriff's Office's words, that the tent had been put in place before the snow came in. Second, the supplies in the tent, and the supplies missing from it, suggested that the two young men had taken advanced climbing gear with them when they left it.

Read together, those two observations draw a narrow, careful picture. The tent was a camp made before the storm, not during it. The young men left it — deliberately, carrying climbing gear, not fleeing it empty-handed — and went on toward the climb. Beyond that, the tent says nothing, and this file does not make it say more. It does not say which direction they took, how far they got, or what happened after they left it. The Sheriff's Office drew no such conclusions from the tent, and neither does this file.

That same day, Sheriff Andy Rohrich gave the search's most quoted assessment, and it is worth recording in full because it cuts against the easiest version of this story. "We are proud of these young men concerning how prepared they were, but sometimes mother nature throws you a curveball," he said. "Almost all the safety measures we tell backcountry explorers to use, these men did. That is a testament to their upbringing, strength and knowledge." The sheriff's point was not consolation dressed as analysis. It was a professional judgement from the person running the search: the failure here was not preparation. The two young men had shared their plan, carried appropriate gear, and made a camp before the storm. The storm, arriving on a mountain that does not forgive a change of conditions, was the variable no preparation fully controls.

As Tuesday wore on, the Sheriff's Office said it hoped the two young men were hunkered down somewhere awaiting rescue, but that the window of opportunity to find them was closing because of coming bad weather. That sentence, reported on 28 October while the search was still under way, is the last hopeful sentence in this file, and it is recorded as a hope, not as a fact. Hopes are part of the record of a search. They are not findings, and this file does not treat them as such.

### Wednesday afternoon, in a basin

On Wednesday 28 October 2026, at about 3:30 p.m. local time, searchers found the bodies of Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon in a basin of West Apostle Mountain in Chaffee County. West Apostle Mountain stands near Ice Mountain, and the discovery came in the ground the search had widened into after the tent was found. The Sheriff's Office announced the discovery in a social media statement in the early hours of Thursday morning, after families had been notified. This file records the time and place as the Sheriff's Office gave them, and nothing more about the scene, because nothing more has been officially given.

Sheriff Rohrich's statement on the discovery is the statement this file closes its narrative on, because it contains both the fact and the request that matters most to the people still living with it. "Our heart aches for Kaden and Jackson's family and friends," he said. "We are very proud of our team's efforts to find them before this weekend's coming storm. Although this is a gut punch, our prayers were answered that we would find Kaden and Jackson, allowing some closure for the family. We ask that everyone give time and distance to family members and friends as they mourn their loss." This file honours that request in its own small way: it names no grieving relative, quotes no family member's grief, and describes no detail of the scene that a family would not want read back in a stranger's blog.

The Sheriff's Office has said foul play is not suspected, and that it will not offer theories about what happened until an autopsy can be completed. Colorado Mountain College said it was devastated by the loss of the two students, and that its focus was on supporting students, faculty and staff in Leadville. Those two statements — one about what the investigation will not do yet, one about who is being supported now — are where the public record currently rests. Everything else about the last hours of two young men on a mountain in a snowstorm is, for now, unknown, and this file leaves it there rather than filling the gap with a plausible story. A plausible story about a mountain is not evidence, and the families of Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon deserve the difference to be kept.

## TIMELINE

- 23 October 2026 (Friday) — Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, leave the Colorado Mountain College Leadville campus for a weekend hike up Ice Mountain, Chaffee County. They send friends a text message with a map showing Ice Mountain as their destination, with an area near Winfield circled. Rain falls on Friday.

- 24 October 2026 (Saturday) — At around 1 p.m., rain turns to heavy snow on the mountain; one to two feet fall, with deeper drifts. Matsuda and Donlon do not return on Saturday, their first planned return day.

- 25 October 2026 (Sunday) — Matsuda and Donlon do not return on Sunday, their second planned return day.

- 26 October 2026 (Monday, about 10 a.m.) — Colorado Mountain College staff report the two students missing. Deputies find Matsuda's vehicle at the trailhead, with about eight inches of snow around it and none underneath it. Cell phone data shows neither phone used in at least 48 hours. Searchers deploy drones, helicopters, infrared technology and search dogs, and find no trace.

- 27 October 2026 (Tuesday) — A helicopter spots an object near Lake Ann; a team on foot finds it is Matsuda and Donlon's tent, collapsed under snow, with sleeping bags, a stove and clothing inside, but the students not there. No snow under the tent and no footprints suggest the tent was pitched before the snow. Missing supplies suggest the two took advanced climbing gear when they left the tent. Sheriff Rohrich says the two did almost all the safety measures backcountry explorers are told to use, and that the window of opportunity to find them is closing because of coming bad weather.

- 28 October 2026 (Wednesday, about 3:30 p.m.) — Searchers find the bodies of Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon in a basin of West Apostle Mountain, Chaffee County. The Sheriff's Office announces the discovery in a social media statement in the early hours of Thursday morning, after families have been notified.

- 29 October 2026 (Thursday) — National coverage (USA TODAY, Associated Press) confirms the discovery, the Sheriff's Office statement, that foul play is not suspected, and that the cause of death awaits autopsy.

## EVIDENCE & LEADS

- The departure (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via USA TODAY and Associated Press): Matsuda and Donlon left the Colorado Mountain College Leadville campus on 23 October 2026 for a hike up Ice Mountain, and were reported missing at about 10 a.m. on 26 October 2026 by college staff after they did not return.

- The shared plan (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via PEOPLE): the two sent friends a text message with a map showing Ice Mountain as their destination, with an area near Winfield circled, potentially indicating where they would go in and camp. Friends said they planned to return Saturday if they did not feel safe, or Sunday if they continued to Ice Mountain.

- Their background (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via USA TODAY): both were experienced hikers; Matsuda was studying to become a wildland firefighter and Donlon was studying to be a mountain guide. Ice Mountain is described by the Sheriff's Office as a very technical climb recommended only for advanced hikers when dry.

- The storm (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via USA TODAY and PEOPLE): rain on Friday turned to heavy snow at around 1 p.m. on Saturday; one to two feet of snow fell, with three to four feet in drifted areas. Road conditions were described by the Sheriff's Office as horrific.

- The vehicle (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via PEOPLE and Alamosa Citizen): Matsuda's vehicle was found at the trailhead (the Mt. Huron trailhead, according to Alamosa Citizen) with about eight inches of snow around it and none underneath it, indicating arrival before the snow.

- The phones (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via PEOPLE and USA TODAY): neither phone had been used in at least 48 hours. The Sheriff's Office noted the two may have turned their phones off to preserve battery life, as service in the area would have been almost nonexistent. This file does not treat a silent phone as evidence of anything further.

- The search (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via USA TODAY): about 60 searchers, with helicopters, drones, infrared technology and search dogs. Foot access was described as extremely dangerous and virtually impossible across snow-covered boulder fields, and there was nowhere on the mountain a helicopter could land.

- The tent (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via USA TODAY and PEOPLE): found 27 October 2026 near Lake Ann, collapsed under snow, with sleeping bags, a stove and clothing inside, and the students not there. No snow under the tent and no visible footprints suggested it was pitched before the snow. Supplies present and missing suggested the two took advanced climbing gear when they left the tent.

- The sheriff's preparedness assessment (Sheriff Andy Rohrich, 28 October 2026, via USA TODAY): "We are proud of these young men concerning how prepared they were, but sometimes mother nature throws you a curveball. Almost all the safety measures we tell backcountry explorers to use, these men did."

- The discovery (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via USA TODAY and Associated Press): bodies found at about 3:30 p.m. on 28 October 2026 in a basin of West Apostle Mountain, Chaffee County, about 100 miles southeast of Aspen. The discovery was announced after families had been notified.

- Foul play (Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, via USA TODAY): foul play is not suspected, and authorities would not share theories about what happened until an autopsy can be conducted. The exact cause and manner of death are therefore not stated in this file.

- The families' privacy request (Sheriff Andy Rohrich, via USA TODAY): "We ask that everyone give time and distance to family members and friends as they mourn their loss." This file names no grieving relative and quotes no family grief.

- The college (Colorado Mountain College, via secondary reporting): the college said it was devastated by the loss and that its focus was on supporting students, faculty and staff in Leadville.

- What is NOT evidence in this file: the cause or manner of death; what happened after the two left their tent; whether they reached Ice Mountain or diverted toward West Apostle Mountain; the exact time of death; any claim about fault, blame or error by any person; any detail of the scene where the bodies were found; and any social-media theory about how two experienced hikers died, which this file does not repeat.

Caption: Illustration of a quiet mountain trailhead at dawn under snow — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of the trailhead used by Matsuda and Donlon and not evidence.

## STILL UNKNOWN

- How did Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon die? The Sheriff's Office has said foul play is not suspected but will not offer theories until an autopsy can be completed. The cause of death is not stated in any source relied on here.

- What was the manner of death? Also pending autopsy, and not stated in this file.

- What happened after they left their tent? The tent evidence shows they left it carrying climbing gear, but no source relied on here states where they went next, how far they got, or what happened after.

- Did they reach Ice Mountain, or divert toward West Apostle Mountain? They were found in a basin of West Apostle Mountain, near Ice Mountain, but no source relied on here states their route between the tent and that basin.

- When exactly did they die? No time of death is stated in the sources relied on here.

- What will the autopsy show? Not yet released. Until it is, this file's account of the ending stops at the confirmed discovery.

What would change this file: if the coroner releases the cause and manner of death, if the Sheriff's Office gives a fuller account of the route or the final hours, or if Colorado Mountain College or the families release further confirmed information, this file will be updated with the date, the source, and the new stamp if the facts require it — never quietly rewritten. Until then, the stamp stays FOUND DECEASED.

## WATCH THE FULL STORY

No companion video yet. If Dark History Files' sister channel Curiozoid publishes a video on this case, it will be linked here.

## SOURCES

- USA TODAY, 29 October 2026 — "2 college students found dead after vanishing during Colorado hike": Sheriff's Office account in full — departure 23 October, reported missing about 10 a.m. 26 October, Ice Mountain technical climb, planned return 24 or 25 October, one to two feet of snow, vehicle at the trailhead, drones/helicopters/infrared/dogs on 26 October, tent found 27 October collapsed under snow with sleeping bags and supplies inside and climbing gear taken, Sheriff Rohrich's preparedness statement and "window of opportunity" warning, Matsuda studying to become a wildland firefighter and Donlon to be a mountain guide, discovery at about 3:30 p.m. 28 October in a basin of West Apostle Mountain, Sheriff Rohrich's statement and privacy request, foul play not suspected, theories withheld pending autopsy. Read in full.

- Associated Press, 29 October 2026 (via Plain Dealer) — "2 college students found dead after going missing during Colorado hike": discovery Wednesday afternoon in a basin of West Apostle Mountain, about 100 miles southeast of Aspen, per the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office statement posted on social media. Read in full.

- PEOPLE, 28 October 2026 (search-period reporting, before the discovery) — "2 College Students Vanish While Hiking Dangerous Mountain During 'First Big' Snowfall of the Season": texted map with Winfield circled, phones unused 48 hours with battery-preservation explanation, tent found near Lake Ann collapsed under snow with no snow underneath and no footprints, three to four feet of snow in drifted areas, foot search virtually impossible, no helicopter landing place. Read via search result in full.

- New York Post, 28 October 2026 — "Two college students missing after going on Ice Mountain hike as search team makes devastating discoveries": departure Friday from Leadville campus, Ice Mountain nearly 14,000 feet, return plan Saturday or Sunday, rain turning to heavy snow around 1 p.m. Saturday, tent collapsed under snow with sleeping bags, stove and clothing inside. Read via search result in full.

- Alamosa Citizen, 28 October 2026 — "Two hikers still missing in Chaffee County": Matsuda 19 of Ridgway and Donlon 20 of New York, Ice Mountain 13,960 feet, vehicle found at the Mt. Huron trailhead with eight inches of snow around it and none under it, about 50 searchers from multiple counties, thermal aircraft finding no heat signatures. Read via search result in full.

- No competitor article text or image is reproduced in this file. Facts are stated in Dark History Files' own words, with officials' statements attributed to their source. No source beyond those listed above was relied on for facts in the draft. No search-volume numbers are stated, because no tool returned any.

A note for readers who hike: This file records a search in which, by the sheriff's own account, the two young men did almost everything backcountry guidance asks for — they shared their plan, carried appropriate gear, and made camp before the storm. The sheriff's words are the lesson this file offers, not a lecture of its own: tell people where you are going, check the forecast for the mountain rather than the town, and treat a technical climb in a storm as a different mountain from the one you planned for. If you are heading into the backcountry, check conditions with the local sheriff's office or search-and-rescue team before you go.

Reader question: The sheriff said these two young men did almost everything backcountry guidance asks for — and still did not come home. What does that change, if anything, about how you judge risk on a mountain you already know?

## RELATED FILES

- DHF-014 — Jasmine Gill: The False ICE Story in Sacramento — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/10/jasmine-gill-sacramento-ice-claim.html

- DHF-011 — Natalie Armstrong: Missing in Dallas, Still No Answers — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/10/natalie-armstrong-missing-dallas-case.html

- DHF-008 — Christin Munn-Holliday: Missing After Bridge Crash — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/10/christin-munn-holliday-missing-bridge-crash.html

Previous file: DHF-014 — Jasmine Gill: The False ICE Story in Sacramento — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/10/jasmine-gill-sacramento-ice-claim.html

Next file: DHF-016 — Joshua Cochran: Found in a Neighbor's Closet

This file is based on public reporting and official statements available as of 29 October 2026. Read how every file is built on the About page (https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/p/about.html), or request a file via the Contact page (https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/p/contact.html).