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PEOPLE : Scaling Mountains for AIDS Research

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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.”

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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.”

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

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