An Arizona college student died earlier this month after slipping and falling down during a hike at California’s Yosemite National Park, officials confirmed Wednesday.
Grace Rohloff, 20, was hiking with her father on July 13 and had successfully reached the summit of Yosemite’s Half Dome, one of the park’s most famous and challenging hikes. But while descending the Half Dome cables during a sudden thunderstorm and downpour, she slipped on a wet portion of the rock and fell down the side of the mountain, her father, Jonathan Rohloff, said in an interview with KPNX.
The Mariposa County coroner’s office confirmed that the fall resulted in Grace’s death.
“She was in between the wooden blocks and slipped to the ground and you know it just happened very fast,” Rohloff told KPNX. “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 described how the pair had completed several hikes together throughout Arizona, and how his daughter was thrilled when she secured a permit to hike Yosemite’s Half Dome. The dome stands over 8,800 feet above sea level, and a round-trip hike to the summit covers more than 14 miles. The Half Dome cables encompass the final portion of the hike and allow hikers to climb without rock climbing equipment.
“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,” Rohloff said, describing her daughter as “fearless.”
According to Rohloff, Grace was pursuing an education degree at Arizona State University and planned to become a student-teacher at Valley Luthern High School, where she had graduated. The high school announced on Facebook that a celebration of her life is planned for this Saturday.
Yosemite National Park officials could not immediately be reached for comment and have not issued a statement on the student’s death. Rohloff told KPNX that he hopes for a safer cable system at Half Dome, a site that has taken the lives of other hikers in the past.
“If we can make the cabling system at Yosemite a lot safer for people to see that beautiful piece of God’s Earth and not be put in danger, then that would be something that she would have wanted,” Rohloff said.
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