Her friend Matthia Kawski, who was hiking with her at the time, recalls hearing a brief cry:
“It was very short almost like a bird’s and I thought, there are no birds here. Then the blood froze in my veins. It was a second later that I heard a dull thump. I ran back to the saddle calling for her. There was incredible silence.” Ioana had fallen 300 feet to her death.
“It’s been tempting for people to think that a pretty, beautiful young woman of 24 might have been out there, you know, out of her element and out of her head,” said her husband Andrew Holycross, “and she absolutely was not.” He also said that “She accomplished more in 24 years than a lot of people do in a lifetime and she lived fully….This was a woman we all admired a lot, and, I’m so proud to have been her husband.”
Hociota recently graduated in mathematics and biology at Arizona State University, after immigrating from Romania in 2002. She could speak English, French, Spanish, and Romanian. She ran in marathons and loved yoga. A scholarship at Arizona State University has been set up in her name.
CORRECTION: 80 miles were the last missing piece to be completed during spring break, after completing the short 20 miles trip 4 weeks ago. End to end, the canyon is about 300 river miles — but by foot, with all the ins and outs likely more about 600 miles, two thirds of that in trail-less regions.
Thanks for this correction. The article has been updated accordingly by the writer.