Two young men who went into the Rocky Mountains last weekend and never came back were found dead Wednesday, victims of a sudden snowstorm that dumped two feet of snow on terrain above 13,000 feet — and it was 60 volunteers, helicopters, and a sheriff still willing to talk about prayer that brought them home.
Kaden Matsuda, 19, of Ridgway, Colorado, and Jackson Donlon, 20, of New York, were students at Colorado Mountain College's Leadville campus. Matsuda was studying to become a wildland firefighter. Donlon was training to be a mountain guide. These were not weekend wanderers. Friends and family described both as experienced hikers and climbers, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office.
They left campus Friday and told friends they'd return by Sunday. Their plan was to summit Ice Mountain, a nearly 14,000-foot peak that requires technical climbing. When they didn't show, college staff reported them missing Monday morning.
By then, the storm had already buried the area. A helicopter crew on Tuesday found the pair's tent collapsed under snow near a lake northwest of Ice Mountain. Inside: sleeping bags, a stove, clothing. The students' climbing gear was gone — not in the tent, not in their dorms, not in Matsuda's vehicle. Trash inside the tent showed they'd eaten before setting out. They left prepared for a technical ascent. Based on the tent's location, officials believe they were actually aiming for the 13,597-foot West Apostle Mountain, and their bodies were found Wednesday in that mountain's basin, about half a mile from where the tent was discovered.
The New York Post reported that neither hiker had used a cell phone in the prior 48 hours, though investigators suspected they may have powered down to save battery.
About 60 search and rescue volunteers combed the terrain with drones equipped with infrared technology, helicopters, and K-9 units. Sheriff Andy Rohrich said Tuesday he was optimistic the young men might be "hunkered down somewhere waiting to be rescued." By Wednesday night, that hope was gone.
"Our heart aches for Kaden and Jackson's family and friends," Rohrich said in a statement. "Although this is a gut punch, our prayers were answered that we would find Kaden and Jackson, allowing some closure for the family."
Note what the sheriff said — "our prayers were answered." Not a government program. Not a bureaucratic protocol. A man who spent days coordinating a massive search on dangerous terrain said, plainly, that prayer delivered the closure these families needed. The Chaffee County Sheriff's Office confirmed foul play is not suspected and said no theories about cause of death will be offered until autopsies are completed.
The Guardian and the Associated Press coverage via WEAU relayed the facts cleanly. The Daily Beast and the New York Post both pushed the emotional angle — the Post quoting the "gut punch" line in its headline. None of the outlets dwelled on the sheriff's invocation of faith. That's how it usually goes: prayer acknowledged, then moved past.
Two young Americans who loved the mountains enough to build careers around them are dead. The mountain took them. The community went looking. And when the search ended in grief instead of rescue, the man leading it pointed to something bigger than the state.
