PEOPLE : Scaling Mountains for AIDS Research

Sarah Prager wants to climb Alaska’s 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley not only because it’s there, but to raise money for AIDS research.

Prager, 21, of Santa Barbara, a senior majoring in Italian studies at Princeton University, is one of nine Princetonians who’ve signed on for the Climb for the Cure, a 30-day endurance test to begin June 15.

“We’ll start our serious training after Christmas,” says Prager, whose highest peak to date is Wyoming’s 13,804-foot Gannett. She admits to being intimidated by McKinley but expects the climb to be “incredibly exhilarating.”

The climb may take 14 days, or 30. The big challenges, she says, will be “the weather and the altitude.” But Prager, a 5-feet-2 inch, 120-pound tennis player and marathoner, expects to be in good physical shape.

Climbing is a high for her in every way: “It’s just amazing, the feeling that you’re higher than anyone else.”

And Prager, a doctor’s daughter, adds, “The idea of doing something for a problem such as AIDS really had an appeal. This is an effort to educate people, to make college-age students especially aware of the disease and what they can do to prevent it or control it.”

Climb for the Cure hopes to raise $250,000 for American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR).