The woman who died Sunday after slipping on icy trails and falling some 15 feet over a waterfall into frozen Purgatory Brook was an experienced winter hiker who was wearing spikes on her boots and was with a companion, according to officials and those who knew her.

Officials say Dorie Goldman, 50, owner of the Backyard Bakery in Amherst, Mass., died after falling over Upper Falls at about 1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25.

“She fell and slipped into the waterfall and the current carried her under the ice,” Mont Vernon Fire Chief Jay Wilson said. She was under the ice for a “significant amount of time.”

Trails around Upper Falls and parts of Purgatory Brook have been closed due to icy conditions.

Goldman’s death was the first recorded fatality associated with Purgatory Brook, which has become popular with hikers in recent years as land has been preserved and opened to trails and snowmobiles.

“She was a regular hiker … she was hiking and running and biking all year round, she was very experienced,” said Peter Skott, Goldman’s former husband. “She was a fantastic person, who always went her own way.”

Goldman’s bakery delivered breads and bakery products, many made with local grains, using a bicycle-pedaled vehicle called an Elf.

According to state Fish & Game officials, Goldman and a companion had parked on the Lyndeborough side of the brook, at the end of Purgatory Road, and hiked to Upper Falls, a distance of a few hundred yards that requires crossing the brook on a bridge made from a felled tree.

Upper Falls is one of three waterfalls along the roughly 5-mile-long Purgatory Brook. The brook starts in New Boston and tumbles south to the Souhegan River in Milford, descending about 900 vertical feet. It makes up much of the border between Mont Vernon and Lyndeborough.

The trail arrives above Upper Falls. Goldman was apparently looking over the falls or approaching the overlook when she slipped and fell over it, onto the largely frozen pool at the base of the falls.

She died before she could be removed from the scene.

Her companion, whose name has not been released, called for help, according to Fish & Game. Skott said Goldman was visiting a friend who lives near Purgatory Falls.

A number of emergency crews from area towns and Fish & Game, which oversees woodland and water rescues, were called to the waterfall, which is accessible only by the most rugged of four-wheel vehicles. The Nashua Dive Team also responded.

A medical helicopter was also summoned, and landed in Wilton before being released a short time later.

Dr. Jennie Duval, the state’s assistant chief medical examiner, is conducting an autopsy on Goldman’s body Monday to determine cause and manner of death, Mont Vernon Police Chief Kevin Furlong said.

Furlong said he and other law enforcers agreed to temporarily shut down trails leading to the falls. Signs were posted along entry points to the Upper Falls and surrounding conservation area Monday, and police “do not cross” tape was strung across the hiking trail both below and above Upper Falls.

The trails around Purgatory Brook are often icy, but particularly so this month. A Jan. 19 posting to a Facebook group called Mont Vernon Chatter urged people to check out the falls, but added: ”Just be sure to wear microspikes or the equivalent; there are some pretty icy patches on the trails.”

Upper Falls, the most dramatic of the three waterfalls along Purgatory Brook, has drawn people for well over a century.

As early as 1880, picnic areas were built on the Mont Vernon side of the falls. Hotels that catered to Boston-area residents escaping summer heat in the era before air conditioning encouraged visitors to the site, which at one point even hosted a bowling alley. Postcards from the turn of the century show men in straw hats and women in hoops skirts picnicking near the top of the falls.

The facilities, including hand railings around the area at the top of the falls, disappeared after the town’s hotel era ended around 1930. Few signs are visible today from of them, except for a few metal rods embedded in rocks.

In the past decade conservation groups including town conservation commission in Mont Vernon and Lyndeborough, have worked to preserve much of the property around the brook. Hiking trails around Lower Falls, which is in Lyndeborough near the Milford border, and around Upper Falls were connected about a decade ago with trails running along the brook. It is about a 3-mile walk to visit all the falls.

The falls are listed in several online guides for hikers, as well as at least one printed guide, titled New England Waterfalls.

David Brooks, Kathryn Marchocki and Dean Shalhoup contributed to this report.