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 (91 meters) 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."