On July 13, a 20-year-old college student died after falling from the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park while hiking with his father, ABC30 reported.
Grace Roloff was descending from the summit with her father during a rainstorm when she slipped and fell 200 feet to her death. ABC30.
“Unfortunately, she lost control between the planks and slid down the granite,” her father, Jonathan Roloff, told ABC30. “It all happened so fast. I tried to reach out to help her and she just fell to the side. It all happened so fast.”
Grace, a student at Arizona State University and an experienced hiker who hiked the Grand Canyon when she was 13, had hoped to become a teacher, ABC30 reported. (Related article: One climber dies, another seriously injured after falling 1,000 feet from Alaska's Mount Johnson)
20-year-old woman dies after falling from Half Dome in Yosemite National Park https://t.co/8Isaq9FySH
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) July 25, 2024
Grace's death comes on the heels of another tragedy in Yosemite in June, when James Hall was killed while trying to rescue his girlfriend after she fell over a waterfall in the park. Both Hall and his girlfriend, Monica Ledesma, died in the accident.
According to a survey conducted by a law firm Roberts & SpiegelNearly 1,300 people have died in Yosemite, most of them from slips and falls, drowning or natural causes.
The law firm noted that 53 people have died slipping in Yosemite between 2007 and 2023. 29-year-old hiker The man who fell from Half Dome in 2019.
According to the Yosemite Park website, Half Dome is a popular 14-16 mile round trip hike that ends with a 400 foot cable climb and has seen “a relatively small number of fatalities.” Still, the park warns that “injuries caused by irresponsible behavior are not uncommon.”
Grace's father told ABC30 he thinks the National Park Service could make climbing Half Dome safer.
“Every 10 feet there's a wooden plank. For those 10 feet, the granite has been walked on so much that it's worn down, almost like a granite countertop. If water gets in there, it becomes very slippery. It makes sense to put a wooden plank every foot,” Roloff said.
ABC30 reported that Roloff understands her daughter's death but wants the park to be a safer place for future hikers.
