Their climbs come alive with special motivation to step it uphill.

Byline: INSIDE THE OUTDOORS By Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Head for the hills. That's always good advice when temperatures soar in the Willamette Valley and you're looking to cool off. But Rebecca Bennett and Cameron Hanes get to the hills and keep on going.

Bennett, 25, of Eugene, will be among 18 people climbing Mount Adams, a 12,276-foot peak in the southern Washington Cascades, this weekend.

Lots of folks climb in the Cascades, but this mountaineering effort is noteworthy because it's part of the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer, a unique fundraiser for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in Seattle.

Bennett and her fellow climbers each pledged to raise $3,000, so their weekend adventure will generate $54,000 for pilot studies on a disease that, according to event organizers, claims the life of one woman every 12 minutes.

Bennett says she decided she wanted to do the climb as soon as she saw the photos brought back by a friend who did a similar climb last year on Mount Baker.

"I've been an outdoors enthusiast my whole life and this seemed like a great thing to do," she said.

But she also had a more personal motivation. Bennett's mother, Vida, died of ovarian cancer in August 1998, at the age of 48. At the time, Bennett was about to begin her senior year of high school in Wilsonville.

The Mount Adams climb is one of eight being conducted under the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer banner this year, including expeditions currently under way to Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and to Mount Elbrus in Russia. (Participants in the African and Russian climbs had to commit to raising $10,000 each for cancer research).

The Hutchinson Center has raised more than $1.75 million via climbs over the past eight years, including nearly $500,000 in 2005.

Bennett's most challenging outdoor adventure heretofore was a trip in Zion National Park that involved repelling down rocky canyon walls.

While she has that rope experience and has done quite a bit of hiking, Bennett has no experience with an ice ax and crampons, which will be required on the glacier route the climbers will follow.

Also, she said, "I haven't done that much altitude, which is a little scary for me."

Climb organizers will be providing mountain guides, training the day before the ascent, tents, ropes and major equipment. Bennett will be relying on borrowed and rented mountain boots, crampons and protective clothing.

Three thousand dollars is not an easy amount to come by for a 25-year-old who just graduated from the University of Oregon in December, and who has been working as a waitress to fill the months until she leaves for Japan to teach English.

Bennett is still scrambling to come up with the final $500 of her pledge. Most of what's she raised so far has come from family members and acquaintances, but about $300 came from customers of Napoli Restaurant and Bakery, where she waitresses and where the owners allowed her to put up a poster about her effort.

"I had strangers taking money out of their wallet and handing it to me," Bennett said. "I think that was the most touching thing ..."

Anyone interested in contributing or learning more about the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer program can do so at: www.fhcrc.org/about/ne/events/climb/. To contribute by credit card, click on the "Support A Climber" box, then use the "please choose climber" pull-down menu to select Bennett's name from the list.

Meanwhile, Cameron Hanes, of Springfield, is a human Energizer Bunny.

He ran up and down hills at altitude several times in the course of a 50-kilometer (31-mile) run while competing in the Siskiyou Out Back (S.O.B.) ultra-marathon. The race began at the Mount Ashland Ski Area lodge (elevation 6,500 feet) and included 4,500 feet of elevation gain and loss. Hanes finished sixth, in 4 hours and 27 minutes.

This just three weeks after he took third place in the Pacific Crest Marathon outside Bend, covering 26.2 miles in a few seconds under three hours - again, at altitude.

Most ultra-marathoners run simply for the self-satisfaction they derive from meeting the challenge.

For Hanes, however, it's part of a means to an end - getting himself in shape for hunting season. You see, Hanes hunts in places few other humans have the wherewithal to go.

An expert bowhunter who specializes in hunting remote and rugged backcountry, Hanes is editor of Eastman's Bowhunting Journal and bowhunting editor of Eastman's Hunting Journal, and author of the book "Bowhunting Trophy Blacktail."

Hanes' second book has just been published. It's called "Backcountry Bowhunting, A Guide to the Wild Side" ($24.95, Eastmans Publishing Co., 288 pages., hardcover; ISBN number: 0-9778837-0-1), and it's available through booksellers or at: www.eastmans.com.

In the book, Hanes details what's involved in being a "hard-core" do-it-yourself backcountry hunter - including the tremendous effort and dedication to the task that required.

You don't have to be an ultra-marathoner to hunt like Hanes, but you do have to be in extremely good physical and mental shape.

Any hunter would enjoy reading about what goes into Hanes' hunts. But very few would be willing to match the effort he puts into preparing for those hunts.

Mike Stahlberg can be reached at [e-mail].