A father recalled to SF Gate his daughter’s chilling final words moments before the 19-year-old daughter plummeted hundreds of feet to her death from Yosemite National Park’s Half Dome.
“Dad, my shoes are slippery,” Grace Rohloff, a University of Arizona student, told her father Jonathan moments before she fell from the sheer cliff face on July 13. “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.”
Once the father and daughter finally reach the Half Dome, which takes hikers up a steep, 400-foot stretch of trail with the aid of cables, Grace told her father she couldn’t believe the beautiful view, and that she loved him.
Suddenly, a severe thunderstorm rolled in and everyone on the Half Dome moved to make their exit. Rohloff and his daughter, both experienced hikers, slowed their descent to allow a group of less experienced walkers to get down ahead of them. Unfortunately, the two were caught the a heavy deluge of rain which slickened the smooth granite face.
Related: Video: Yellowstone Geyser Explodes, Sends Tourists Scrambling
About three–quarters of the way down the Half Dome, Grace’s feet slipped out from under her and she tumbled to her death. Rohloff watched helplessly as she fell, but believed there was a chance she was still alive when she came to a rest between 200 and 300 feet below.
Unable to get down to the area where his daughter lay, Rohloff had to wait three hours before rescuers were able to reach the scene and retrieve her body. After he called 911, Rohloff called down to his daughter. “Grace, I’m here. I’m not going to leave you,” he told her. “If you can hear my voice, give me a sign. I love you.”
He began praying, and soon was joined by other hikers who did the same.
“'It was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen,” fellow hiker Erin McGlynn, 22, told the outlet. “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.”
When medics arrived, they pronounced Grace dead at the scene. She had endured a catastrophic head injury, and Rohloff was later told that she likely died during the fall before she hit the ground.
“That was at least comforting,” he said. “If she was gone, that she didn’t have to suffer.”
Rohloff and his wife, Astraea, are still struggling to make sense of their daughter’s untimely death, but they both take some comfort in the fact that Grace was so beloved during her short life.
“Grace was such a beautiful soul,” Rohloff said. “She was the star on every team she ever played on, but the 12th girl on the basketball team—Grace made that girl feel just as important. She had a way of connecting people and making them feel special.”
“That girl was just pure joy,” Astraea added.
“I believe that God was calling her home,” Rohloff concluded. “And I believe that there will be reasons for her death that will be revealed to us.”
