A distraught father recalled the moment his college student daughter slipped and fell to her death during a hike in Yosemite earlier this month.
“Dad, my shoes are slippery,” 20-year-old Grace Rohloff told her father seconds before she lost footing and fell 200 feet down the Half Dome on July 11.
“She just slid off to the side, right by me, down the mountain,” Jonathan Rohloff recalled.
“It happened so fast. I tried to reach my hand up, but she was already gone.”
The father and daughter were experienced hikers but were caught in a rain storm.
“Grace, I’m here. I’m not going to leave you. If you can hear my voice, give me a sign. I love you,” the father screamed as he struggled to get down the steep mountain to where his daughter had landed.
It took rescue teams three hours to reach Grace who suffered a fatal head injury.
“It was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen,” fellow hiker Erin McGlynn said.
“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.”
