DEVELOPING STORY: The search is ongoing for two hikers, students from Colorado Mountain College(CMC) Leadville Campus. Kaden Matsuda, age 19 from Ridgeway, CO and Jackson Donlon age 20 from New York departed campus on Friday, Oct. 23rd with plans to hike Ice Mountain on the far north end of Chaffee County. They intended to return Sunday. CMC reported their absence to the Sheriff’s office Monday, Oct. 26 at 10am.
Friends and family explained that both were experienced hikers and should have had appropriate clothing. Kaden and Jackson also sent their friends a text with a map pinpointing Ice Mountain as their destination. The image also showed the area around Winfield and the trailhead circled potentially indicating where they would go in and/or camp.
When deputies and search and rescue personnel arrived at the trailhead Monday they located Kaden’s vehicle. There was about eight inches of snow on the ground but none under the vehicle. On Friday when the two ventured to the mountain it would have been raining in the area with Saturday experiencing heavy snowfall…