College Student Falls 200 Feet in Front of Her Dad While Hiking Yosemite's Half Dome, Dies Right Before Graduation
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Joy turned to horror in a flash for an Arizona man as his daughter fell 200 feet to her death before his eyes as the two hiked Half Dome at Yosemite National Park in California.
Grace Rohloff, 20, died on July 13 after a storm rolled in while she and her father, Jonathan Rohloff, were descending, according to KPNX-TV in Phoenix.
“She told me it was something that was on her bucket list that she always wanted to do, and she was so happy about it,” the Phoenix man said of his daughter, who was nearing graduation from Arizona State University with a degree in education in just two-and-a-half years.
The pair reached the summit just before a thunderstorm rolled through.
The father and daughter were trying to make their way down the cables when Grace slipped and fell down the mountain, her father said.
When Grace Rohloff and her father, Jonathan, reached the summit of Half Dome, she was smiling ear to ear. Jonathan Rohloff didn’t know it would be his last ten minutes with her. 🙏💔https://t.co/IkrwBrLm4z pic.twitter.com/NaqmiV6G7X
— KENS 5 (@KENS5) July 24, 2024
“That day was supposed to be 65 and cloudy, and so we knew that it would be dangerous, you know, that was Half Dome,” he said.
But they made it to the top.
“There’s no way 10 minutes before, when she was up there smiling ear to ear, that I thought I only had 10 minutes left with her. It was a tragedy,” Rohloff said.
Then the skies grew dark.
“A black cloud was rolling in like gangbusters,” he said, according to SFGATE. “I was like, ‘We have got to get down now, because we don’t want to be up here with any rain. It rolled in literally out of nowhere.’”
The pair could have made the descent quickly, but on the cabling system used to get up and down from the top, others were moving slowly. And so they were caught in rain they could have avoided.
Nikhil Shahi shared this photos he took of hikers climbing up the cables to the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, CA. pic.twitter.com/ZQDOCTtNax
— Anila Whitney (@ANILAWHITNEY) September 15, 2023
“It was difficult because you try to be polite and try to respect other people’s boundaries, as well, and then you know, we were getting dumped on with rain because we’re waiting for others,” Rohloff said, according to KMPH-TV in Fresno, California.
“You try to replay the day over and over through your head. Like if we would have done this differently or if we would have done this differently, or I don’t know,” he said. “But nothing, none of that’s going to bring Grace back.”
Rohloff said as the rain fell, the rocks became slick, according to SFGATE.
“Dad, my shoes are so slippery,” he remembered his daughter saying.
They slowly worked their way down until they were about three-fourths of the way.
“She just slid off to the side, right by me, down the mountain,” Rohloff said. “It happened so fast. I tried to reach my hand up, but she was already gone.”
He descended quickly in hopes of reaching his daughter. The slope was too steep.
As the father waited for first responders, he stood in the rain calling, “Grace, I’m here. I’m not going to leave you. If you can hear my voice, give me a sign. I love you.”
Erin McGlynn of Las Vegas came upon the scene.
“It was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen,” McGlynn said. “But it was also one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen. He was able to compose himself, just in case he could provide any comfort to her. He did everything he possibly could have.”
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