Search crews<\/a> raced against worsening weather as they looked for the students, who went missing after a weekend mountain trip. In an interview with 11 News on Wednesday, Rohrich said additional snow and dangerous conditions could soon limit the search.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,\u201d Rohrich said.<\/p>\n
According to the sheriff\u2019s office, Matsuda and Donlon planned to camp near Ice Mountain and attempt a climb over the weekend. Colorado Mountain College contacted authorities Monday morning after the students failed to return, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Rohrich says deputies found the students\u2019 vehicle at a nearby trailhead. A helicopter later spotted their tent, which had collapsed under heavy snow, in a basin below the peaks. He says the discovery led investigators to expand the search around nearby West Apostle Peak, which could better align with the students\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n
About 60 searchers worked in dangerous conditions<\/p>\n
Rohrich said about 60 searchers worked in the area using helicopters, drones, search dogs and beacon technology. Flight for Life had been attempting to locate an avalanche beacon that Jackson typically carries, but those efforts had not been successful as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Rohrich said crews focused on the lower basin near the tent and the areas leading toward the peaks. Several feet of snow, icy conditions and hazardous terrain made it too dangerous for teams to access some areas on foot.<\/p>\n
Rohrich said officials brought in search dogs to use scent articles from the tent in an effort to determine which direction the students may have traveled.<\/p>\n
Weather could complicate search<\/p>\n
Rohrich said more winter weather expected later in the week could have grounded aircraft, limited drone operations and covered potential clues with additional snow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to go as 100%, as hard as we can, until Mother Nature tells us we can\u2019t do it anymore,\u201d Rohrich said.<\/p>\n
College faculty assisting search<\/p>\n
Colorado Mountain College said faculty members with specialized training in mountain travel and rescue assisted search teams.<\/p>\n
The college said it contacted authorities Monday morning after learning the students had not returned. Law enforcement had already been notified and Chaffee County Search and Rescue had mobilized, according to the college\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n
Rohrich believed the students were well-equipped and had prepared for the trip. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen worst-case scenarios that ended positive,\u201d Rohrich said. \u201cSo we\u2019re keeping up hope. The family\u2019s keeping up hope. They\u2019re strong. And we\u2019re just going to keep pushing to the end here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The search concluded Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KKTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHAFFEE COUNTY, Colo. (KKTV) – Sheriff Andy Rohrich says two missing Colorado hikers have been found dead. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-898451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}