A Pittsburgh-area physician, who ran a private practice in holistic family medicine and was an experienced rock climber, died Saturday in a 60-foot fall while scaling the east face of Seneca Rocks in West Virginia, state police said yesterday.

Friends said Amy Ruth Stine, 49, of Ohio Township, was lead climbing -- in which two people ascend a climb in sections -- when something went wrong. State police said it appeared climbing equipment broke loose or malfunctioned, although the exact circumstances of the accident were unknown yesterday.

Dr. Stine's death was the tragic end to a weekend excursion at the popular climbing destination with her husband, William Brose, with whom she shared her passion for rock climbing.

Seneca Rocks is the landmark attraction of Pendleton County, W.Va., about 115 miles south-southeast of Pittsburgh. The pair traveled across the country on various climbs, friends said.

"She and Bill were very safety conscious, very careful," said Victor Barbetti, a fellow rock climber who has joined the couple on their trips, but wasn't at Seneca Rocks on Saturday.

Dr. Stine, a member of the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh, which sponsors rock climbing and other outdoor expeditions, was highly skilled and often trained at The Climbing Wall on Penn Avenue, where workers described her as a regular.

Fellow Explorers Club members said they were shocked and saddened by the accident, which, they said, happened during the traditional technique of lead climbing.

In that maneuver, a "leader" climbs the route, with a rope attached to his or her harness, while a second climber, known as a "belayer," holds the other end of the rope. The belayer runs the rope through a device on his or her harness, and feeds the rope out as the leader rises. The system is designed so that in the event the lead climber should slip or fall, the belayer would be able to use the rope to save the lead.

Dr. Stine, who earned her medical degree from the University of Maryland, had a family practice on Perry Highway in McCandless. She worked at UPMC Rehab Hospital, a physical rehabilitation hospital, until January 2005, a UPMC spokeswoman said. She earned her bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and graduated from Towson High School in Towson, Md.

Visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. today and from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Simons Funeral Home, 7720 Perry Highway, Ross.

A service will be held in the funeral home at 11 a.m. Thursday.