Student fell 60 meters to her death while hiking in Yosemite National Park in front of her father

A father is calling for stronger safety measures for hikers after watching his daughter slip and die in Yosemite National Park.

On July 13, 20-year-old University of Arizona student Grace Rohloff went hiking with her father Jonathan Rohloff in Yosemite National Park in California, USA.

However, their 25.7-kilometer walk was cut short by tragedy. Jonathan has since spoken out about the incident to raise awareness of the tragedy.

Jonathan Rohloff draws attention to the consequences of his daughter Grace’s fatal fall in Yosemite National Park (Facebook/ Jonathan Rohloff)

The father-daughter duo were an experienced hiking couple and, according to SFGate, had already hiked together several times through different terrain.

On July 11, they managed to get a permit to hike Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.

They were reportedly told by a ranger that a storm was approaching, but with only a few clouds in sight, they decided to leave around 8:00 a.m. on July 13.

Around noon, they reached the end of the Half Dome cable car and followed a group of other hikers. Jonathan noticed that the sky was completely clear.

But at the top of the dome the weather changed and a violent storm with thunder and rain hit the park.

The couple were hiking in Yosemite National Park in California (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jonathan told SFGate: “A black cloud was coming in with full force.

“I thought to myself, ‘We have to get down now because we don’t want to be up here when it’s raining.’ But it literally came out of nowhere.”

Unfortunately, the people ahead of them were making slow progress, and Grace and Jonathan became stuck in the cable-fenced area as a storm approached.

Jonathan remembers his daughter telling Grace how “slippery” her shoes were as they continued to try to move forward. The father supported Grace by telling her to “take one step at a time.”

But on the couple’s way back through the dome, Grace slipped.

Jonathan recalled: “She just slid down the hill next to me. It happened so fast. I tried to put my hand up, but she was already gone.”

Jonathan immediately made his way down the dome as quickly as possible, but unfortunately the abyss was too steep and he could not reach his daughter – Grace had fallen between 60 and 90 meters into the depths.

The father-daughter duo were experienced hikers (Facebook/ Jonathan Rohloff)

He didn’t give up, called 911 and screamed, “Grace, I’m here. I won’t leave you. If you can hear my voice, give me a sign. I love you.”

He said other hikers came to support the father and knelt to pray with him, and park ranger Shawna Daly waited with him while helicopters flew to pick up Grace.

A coroner later concluded that Grace must have died in the fall, as she had suffered a severe skull fracture. Jonathan noted that it was “comforting” to know that his daughter “did not have to suffer.”

The father has since called for increased safety precautions along the ropes of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.

He decided, “This will be my first and last time climbing Half Dome because it is unnecessarily dangerous up there. It won’t bring my daughter back, but I want to strongly advocate for a safer way to get to the top of Half Dome.”

A Yosemite National Park spokesman told the San Francisco Chronicle that the case remains under investigation.

UNILAD has contacted Yosemite National Park for comment.