MISSING CLIMBERS PLUNGED TO DEATHS AT WEST APOSTLE MOUNTAIN

Climbers Kaden Matsuda, 19, and Jackson Donlon, 20, subjects of a dramatic search, plunged to their deaths at West Apostle Mountain in Chaffee County due to a "catastrophic" equipment failure, the sheriff and coroner announced Tuesday.

"The autopsy showed that the cause of both their deaths was multiple blunt force injuries and their deaths were instant," an official statement said.

Their bodies were recovered Oct. 29 a mountain basin. They had been missing for several days.

An investigation by the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office showed:

“Jackson was beginning to rappel from a primary anchor point on a rock substrate. That anchor appears to have been backed up by a piton and a secondary anchor made of rock substrate. Kaden was attached via his personal anchor device to the same anchor points as well as the primary anchor point. The anchor had a catastrophic failure of unknown cause.

"Both then fell a substantial distance (exact distance unknown). It is unknown if the heavy snowstorm had a negative impact leading to the incident, but it did not play a direct contributing factor in their death.”

The men attended the Leadville campus of Colorado Mountain College.