Jackson Donlon, 20, began rappelling on Colorado’s Ice Mountain when the anchor he and his climbing partner, Kaden Matsuda, 19, were attached to failed, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office. Both fell into a basin below. Investigators could not determine why the anchor failed or how far the two fell.

Donlon, from Queensbury, New York, and Matsuda, an aspiring firefighter from Ridgway, Colorado, attended Colorado Mountain College’s Leadville campus. They had set out to climb Ice Mountain, a peak that rises nearly 14,000 feet.

During the search, Matsuda’s car was found near the trail with about eight inches of snow around it. The students’ tent had collapsed under the snow. Their sleeping bags, clothing, and stove were still inside. Five days after the students left campus, searchers found their bodies.

Investigators said Donlon’s main anchor appeared to have a piton and a second rock anchor as backups. Matsuda was clipped into the same system when it gave way. According to the sheriff’s office, autopsies showed that both students died instantly from multiple blunt force injuries.

A heavy snowstorm had swept through during the climb. Investigators said the storm did not directly cause the students’ deaths, though they could not determine whether it affected the events leading up to the fall.

In its statement, the sheriff’s office remembered Donlon and Matsuda for their love of the high country and hoped their families and friends would find comfort in memories of them.