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Two college students missing after going on Ice Mountain hike as search team makes devastating discoveries

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Cite

O'Neill, N. (2026, October 28). Two college students missing after going on Ice Mountain hike as search team makes devastating discoveries. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/10/28/us-news/two-college-students-missing-after-going-on-ice-mountain-hike-as-search-team-makes-devastating-discoveries/

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New York Post · collected 2026-10-28 · by Natalie O'Neill

Quick Summary

Two college students, Kaden Matsuda and Jackson Donlon, went missing after a hiking trip on Ice Mountain in Colorado over the weekend. The sheriff’s office reported that the pair left from the Colorado Mountain College Leadville campus Friday for their adventure but did not return as planned due to rapidly changing weather conditions that turned rainy to heavy snow by Saturday afternoon. On Tuesday, search teams found a tent with camping gear and clothing but no signs of the students or recent activity in the snow around it.
Written by AI on 2026-10-31, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, both students at Colorado Mountain College Leadville's campus in Leadville, Chaffee County, were found dead on Wednesday after going missing during a hike to Ice Mountain on October 23. The sheriff’s office said foul play is not suspected but would not speculate further until autopsy results are available. The pair left the college campus for their backpacking adventure over the weekend and planned to return two days later, but severe weather conditions, including a heavy snowstorm, likely contributed to their disappearance. Search efforts involved 60 volunteers from six different counties who braved treacherous trails and deteriorating weather. Their bodies were discovered in a basin near West Apostle Mountain, approximately 100 miles southeast of Aspen.

Written for “Two College Students Found Dead Hiking Ice Mountain” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 7 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Two College Students Found Dead Hiking Ice Mountain
Crime & Law · 8 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 17% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Guardian
Hedges 2 of 17 claims Outlet record 66/100
New York Post
Hedges 2 of 17 claims Outlet record 66/100
Daily Mail
Hedges 3 of 27 claims Outlet record 68/100
Fox News
Hedges 0 of 21 claims Outlet record 69/100
ABC News (US)
Hedges 5 of 22 claims Outlet record 70/100
The Independent
Hedges 0 of 22 claims Outlet record 59/100
Global News
Hedges 7 of 39 claims Outlet record 63/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
6
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
17%
1 of 6 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
8
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-31 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

New York Post · 15921 article(s) · 35 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 35 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Natalie O'Neill
39 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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🔮 Crump — a civil rights attorney who famously represented the families of George Floyd, Michael Brown and Breonna Taylor — added in a statement, “We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth.”
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Also by Natalie O'Neill
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 39 articles by Natalie O'Neill →

Topics

Chaffee County Colorado Colorado Mountain College Leadville Sheriff’s Office

Subjects

Chaffee County GPE · 2× Colorado GPE · 1× Colorado Mountain College ORG · 1× Jackson Donlon PERSON · 1× Kaden Matsuda PERSON · 1× Leadville GPE · 1× Sheriff’s Office ORG · 1×

Narrative

Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, left the Colorado Mountain College Leadville campus Friday for a backpacking adventure on Ice Mountain — a nearly 14,000-foot peak on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in Chaffee County, the sheriff’s office said.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-31

Claims (6 extracted, 1 hedged)

Two college students in Colorado disappeared while on a snowy hike over the weekend — and authorities searching for them say the window to find them is rapidly closing. asserted
window → disappear → them
Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, left the Colorado Mountain College Leadville campus Friday for a backpacking adventure on Ice Mountain — a nearly 14,000-foot peak on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in Chaffee County, the sheriff’s office said. asserted
office → leave → County
Friends who spoke with the pair said they planned on returning from the camping trek Saturday if they didn’t feel safe — or Sunday if conditions were good, the station reported. asserted
station → speak → trek
The weather, however, quickly turned from rain to heavy snow at around 1 p.m. Saturday, causing “horrific road conditions,” Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office said. asserted
Office → turn → conditions
Crews combing the area by helicopter Tuesday discovered a tent collapsed under the snow with their sleeping bags, a stove and clothing inside — but the students were nowhere to be found. asserted
students → comb → bags
“There was no snow under the tent and there were no visible footprints in the snow which suggested, again, this was all in place before the snow came in,” the office explained. uncertain
office → be → place
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