The U.S. Forest Service says police are investigating the death of a Mount Washington climber who was hiking up a snowy and icy area of the Northeast's highest peak when he apparently slipped and fell more than 300 feet into a boulder-strewn area.
The Forest Service said 37-year-old Jeremy Ullmann, of Somerville, Massachusetts, a neuroscientist at Boston Children's Hospital, died Feb. 10.
Frank Carus of the Mount Washington Avalanche Center tells New Hampshire Public Radio that Ullmann fell into a boulder field known as the Fan.
He said Ullmann had two ice axes, "one of which dragged quite well through the snow for a long distance." Carus said Ullmann was an experienced rock climber and mountaineer, but "this was an accident that could have happened to anyone."
Ullmann, who obtained his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University before getting his Ph.D. at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, is survived by his wife and 3-year-old son, in addition to his family and friends, according to his obituary.
