A Winchester woman is dead after a mountain climbing accident.

West Virginia State Police say Amanda Joy Crawford was climbing at the Nelson Rocks Preserve in Pendleton County.

Police report Crawford was using the proper safety equipment, but unhooked one of her lines to go around a tree.

That's when she mis-stepped and fell almost 150 feet. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The type of mountain climbing Crawford was doing is rare in the United States. It's a system that is said to be safe for people who have no prior climbing training. It's called Via Feratta. According to the Nelson Rocks Preserve Website, Via Ferrata is a type of mountain climbing route with a safety system permanently installed.

Although this type of climbing trail is rare, some local rock climbers we spoke with say any type of mountain climbing can be dangerous.

John Fontana has just recently started rock climbing. He says he likes to boulder because he feels safer. "Because I'm closer to the ground, I don't go up as high, my life isn't in the hands of a rope, it's in my abilities and I can just fall off the rock whenever I want onto my little pad," he says.

Fontana says he climbs for the mental challenge of having to work out a problem with his mind and physically having to get past it. He says others, however, climb for the adrenaline rush. "A challenge of, I just want to see if I can do this, I just want to see if I can make it to the top; they just test their limits and they just kind of get an adrenaline rush off of that," he says.

We spoke with an Eastern Mennonite University professor who is familiar with Via Ferrata. He says this type of climbing is designed to prevent any accidents. The route Crawford was climbing was only the second of its kind in the United States.