Search teams in Colorado have found a collapsed tent and abandoned gear belonging to two missing college hikers, but no sign of the young men themselves.
Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, both students at Colorado Mountain College Leadville, set out Friday for a backpacking trip on Ice Mountain, a nearly 14,000-foot peak on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in Chaffee County, according to the sheriff’s office. Friends who spoke with the pair before they left said the students planned to return Saturday if conditions felt unsafe, or Sunday if the weather held.
The weather turned vicious Saturday afternoon. Rain shifted to heavy snow around 1 p.m., creating what the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office described as “horrific road conditions.” That storm appears to have been the turning point that separated the hikers from their equipment and, so far, from rescue.
On Tuesday, helicopter crews scanning the area spotted one of the hikers’ tents buried under snow. Sleeping bags and clothing remained inside. The students were not there.
The discovery of the collapsed shelter has sharpened the urgency of a search that officials already warned was racing against time. Authorities have said the window to find Matsuda and Donlon is rapidly closing, though they have not publicly specified what factors are driving that timeline.
The pair had told friends their return depended on conditions, a flexible plan that now leaves investigators piecing together whether the students tried to wait out the storm, attempted to descend, or became disoriented as visibility dropped and temperatures plunged.
Ice Mountain, standing at approximately 13,951 feet, sits in a region where autumn weather can shift from manageable to lethal within hours. The peak is part of the Sawatch Range, known for its combination of high altitude and sudden storms that catch even experienced hikers off guard.
The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office has led the multi-day search operation, deploying aerial resources after the weekend storm cleared enough to allow helicopter flights. Ground crews have also been involved, though the same snow that complicated the hikers’ journey has hampered search efforts in spots.
Matsuda and Donlon were last known to be on the mountain Friday, meaning by Tuesday they had faced at least four nights of exposure to freezing temperatures at elevation. The abandoned tent and gear suggest they may have been forced to move without their shelter, or that the structure failed in wind and snow load.
Friends who had communicated with the students before the hike provided the timeline that has guided search efforts, telling authorities about the Saturday-or-Sunday return plan. That information established the window after which the pair was considered overdue.
The sheriff’s office has not released additional details about what searchers found near the tent site, or whether tracks or other signs of the students’ movement were visible in the snow.