Student plunged 200 feet to her death in front of her dad while hiking in Yosemite
Topics: Parenting, US News, Weather, California
Poppy Bilderbeck
Featured Image Credit: Jonathan Rohloff
Topics: Parenting, US News, Weather, California
A dad is calling for greater safety measures to be put in place for hikers after watching his daughter slip and fall to her death in Yosemite National Park.
On July 13, 20-year-old University of Arizona student Grace Rohloff went hiking with her dad Jonathan Rohloff in Yosemite National Park in California, US.
However, their 16-mile hike was cut short when tragedy struck and Jonathan has since spoken out about the incident to raise important awareness.
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The father and daughter duo were a pair of experienced hikers, reported by SFGate as having hiked together multiple times across multiple different terrains.
On July 11, they managed to get a permit through to hike the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.
A ranger reportedly told them a storm was incoming, however, there were only a few clouds overheard, so they decided set off at around 8:00am on July 13.
At around noon, they reached the bottom of Half Dome's cables and continued to follow up behind a group of other hikers, with Jonathan noting that the sky was completely clear.
However, at the top of the Dome, the weather turned and a heavy thunder and rain storm hit the park.
Jonathan told SFGate: "A black cloud was rolling in like gangbusters.
"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."
Unfortunately, the people in front of them were slow in moving along and so Grace and Jonathan ended up getting stuck on the cabled area as the storm descended.
As they continued to try and move along, Jonathan recalls his daughter telling him how 'slippery' her shoes were, with the dad supporting Grace by telling her to 'do one step at a time'.
But on the pair's journey back down the Dome, Grace slipped.
Jonathan recalled: "She just slid off to the side, right by me, down the mountain. It happened so fast. I tried to reach my hand up, but she was already gone."
Jonathan immediately descended his way down the Dome as quickly as he could, but devastatingly it was too steep and he couldn't reach his daughter - with Grace having fallen around 200 to 300 feet.
Not giving up, he called 911 and shouted: "Grace, I’m here. I’m not going to leave you. If you can hear my voice, give me a sign. I love you."
He said that other hikers came over to the dad in support, kneeling down to pray with him and park ranger Shawna Daly waited with him while helicopters went to get Grace.
A coroner later resolved Grace would've died during the fall, having sustained a severe head fracture. Jonathan noted the report was 'comforting' to know his daughter 'didn't have to suffer'.
The father has since called for greater safety measures to be put in place along the cables of the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.
He resolved: "This is my first time, and my last time doing Half Dome because it is unnecessarily dangerous up there. It’s not going to bring my daughter back, but I would like to strongly advocate for a safer way to get to the top of Half Dome."
A spokesperson for Yosemite National Park told the San Francisco Chronicle that the case remains under investigation.
UNILAD has contacted Yosemite National Park for comment.