Arizona father, daughter celebrated reaching summit of Yosemite's Half Dome minutes before the daughter fell to her death

PHOENIX — An Arizona State University student and Valley Lutheran High School graduate died after slipping and falling while hiking up Yosemite's Half Dome with her father earlier this month, according to family members. 

Grace Rohloff, 20, was an experienced hiker and was ecstatic to secure a permit to hike Half Dome with her father, Jonathan Rohloff, on July 11.

“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 during a sit-down interview.

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 Rohloff slipped and fell down the mountain, Jonathan Rohloff said. 

“That day was supposed to be 65 and cloudy and so we knew that it would be dangerous, you know, that was Half Dome," Jonathan Rohloff said.

Jonathan Rohloff describes hearing a "loud thunderclap" overhead as the pair had completed their ascent up the rock. As they made their descent, he says his daughter slipped on a slippery portion of the rock caused by the downpour of rain.

“She was in between the wooden blocks and slipped to the ground and you know it just happened very fast and she slid down the side of the mountain," Jonathan Rohloff said.

Jonathan recalled the smile on his daughter's face ten minutes before the fall as she had just accomplished one of her greatest feats yet.

“There’s no way ten 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," he said.

'She was fearless'

There are many adjectives Jonathan Rohloff used to describe his daughter, but the one used the most is adventurous. 

“She was fearless. She was an adventurer. We did hikes all throughout Arizona. Grace and I put on thousands of miles hiking," Jonathan Rohloff said.

The soon-to-be fourth-generation Sun Devil was about to graduate with a degree in education in just two and half years, well on her way to becoming a student-teacher at her high school alma mater Valley Lutheran High School.

“Grace was born a Sun Devil. She brightened up every room she was in. She was an amazing human being. And you know her spirit still surrounds me," Jonathan Rohloff said.

Yosemite National Park officials have not issued a statement on the death. Her family hopes to work with Yosemite officials to make the cable system used by thousands of people every year more secure. 

Jonathan does not want her death to be in vain. Instead, he wants it to create meaningful change that could save lives in the future.

"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," Jonathan said.

A celebration of life for Grace Rohloff will be held Saturday, July 27 at Trinity Lutheran Church and School in Litchfield Park at 10 a.m.

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